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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25811860">The Tides and the Flame</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuixoticMage/pseuds/QuixoticMage'>QuixoticMage</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Tides Sequence [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Aqua POV, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Trauma, Trauma Recovery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 11:47:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>27,069</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25811860</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuixoticMage/pseuds/QuixoticMage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Aqua has escaped the Realm of Darkness, but the hold it has on her mind is not so easily broken.  The Mysterious Tower represents safety and a chance to recover if she can find a way to manage her nightmares.  Meanwhile, Axel and Kairi's keyblade training has stalled, and perhaps training from the newly returned keyblade master is just what they all need to help them face the burdens they carry.</p><p>This is technically a sequel to the previous entry in this series, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25617757/chapters/62182693">The Moon and The Tides </a>, but can be read as a standalone.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Aqua &amp; Axel &amp; Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua/Axel (Kingdom Hearts)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Tides Sequence [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1856935</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>31</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aqua’s glider flew through the Lanes Between.  It was different without her armor.  She could feel the darkness sticking to her and sucking at her like black tar.  Once it would have been disconcerting, even alarming.  If she had flown unarmored back when she’d first left the Land of Departure, she might even have fallen to the dark unintentionally.</p><p>She would not fall now.</p><p>It clawed at her with all-consuming ill-intent and Aqua paid it no mind.  Instead, she focused on the destination growing larger before her eyes.  A tower, crooked but tall, looming out of a small spit of land suspended in the Realm of Twilight.  Mysterious was a good name for it, and Aqua was heartened to see that, despite everything that had occurred, it was still extant.  If not in the same spot as it once had been.</p><p>She soared down to the land in front of the tower and hopped off her glider, letting it return to its keyblade form.  Applause echoed in the vast empty space.</p><p>“Well well well, that’s a new trick.  How long do you have to have a keyblade before they teach you how to do that?” a new voice drawled.</p><p>Old instincts against smug condescension rushed to the fore, and Aqua was swinging her keyblade before she’d even identified the voice’s owner.  Her blade clanged against a large fiery chakram held by a tall man with brilliant red hair and a black coat.</p><p>“Who are you?  Where’s Master Yen Sid?” she demanded, shoving forward.</p><p>He pushed back, green eyes growing stormy.  “Who wants to know?  I’m telling you now, if you want to hurt the old man, you’ll have to go through me.”</p><p>“I don’t want to hurt him,” Aqua said.  She stepped back, still eyeing him warily.  “I need to speak with him.  I’ve been away for a long time.  Go tell him Master Aqua has returned and you’ll see that he knows me.”</p><p>“So I’m an errand boy now, is it?”  The man shrugged and let his chakrams fall away.  “It’s not the ickiest job I’ve had.  I’ll tell him.  And if he wants to see you, I might even tell you my name when I get back.”</p><p>A voice boomed from somewhere near to the top of the tower. </p><p>“Master Aqua is always welcome in my home.”</p><p>Aqua and the red-haired man exchanged a look.  “If he was listening the entire time, why did he bother having you as a door guard?” she asked.</p><p>He rubbed the back of his head.  “Beats me.  Who knows why those old sorcerous types do anything.  Guess you can follow me up then.  The inside’s changed three times since I got here, so it’s probably different than what you’re used to.”</p><p>Aqua nodded and he led her through the door.  Inside, instead of the staircase Aqua was expecting, there was a perfectly round open area absolutely filled with giant turning gears, oddly strung ropes, and moving platforms.  A guide seemed more necessary than she had thought it would be.</p><p>The two made their way up the tower through a series of nonsensical paths.  They took a lift up to one level, hopped into the teeth of one gear and over into the turning shaft of another.  Occasionally they even had to descend just to make their way to a new platform to take them higher still.</p><p>“So, what is your name?” Aqua asked as they walked. </p><p>“It’s…” he broke off, hesitating.  “It’s Axel,” he finally said, and a weight seemed to lift from him as he did so.  “Just Axel, now.”</p><p>“That seemed unusually hard for you to say,” she pointed out.  Aqua ducked to one side to dodge a swinging pendulum, then had to jump to make it to Axel’s platform before it lifted out of reach.</p><p>Axel hadn’t noticed.  He was staring down into the mess of machinery, his gaze a million miles away.  “You gotta decide what’s part of you and what isn’t.  What you’re holding onto and what you’re throwing away,” he said, mostly to himself.  “I guess I’ve made that decision.”  He looked up, eyes sharp and clear.</p><p>“I’ve decided my name’s Axel.  Got it memorized?”</p><p>“Yes,” Aqua responded, somewhat nonplussed by his seriousness over what seemed a simple question. </p><p>“Good.”</p><p>They were quiet as they walked, climbed, and occasionally fell.  It was a comfortable silence.  The people in Luna’s world had been friendly, but there was an air to them that was entirely too restrained compared to what Aqua was used to.  They fought with little sticks of wood and elegant spells and tidy robes.  Luna had been the rare and welcome exception, but their plainness made Aqua’s elaborate outfit and keyblade stand out.</p><p>Axel, on the other hand, made her feel like she’d come home.  His gigantic chakrams were ridiculously over the top, his coat had more zippers than any ten outfits could ever need, and his hair rebelled against gravity and was bright enough to give off sparks.  The sheer excess of his whole presentation made real the fact that she’d finally returned to her own familiar corner of the worlds.</p><p>“What?  Someone stick a 'kick me' sign back there?” he asked, and Aqua realized she’d been staring at his broad back as she walked behind him.</p><p>She shook her head.  “Nothing.  Sorry.  Just haven’t been around people for a while.  I’m a little rusty.”</p><p>Axel chuckled.  “Hell, I haven’t been a person for a while, so that makes two of us that are a little rusty.”  He waved off her confused look.  “Yen Sid will explain everything, including my sordid backstory.  I’d just get you all muddled up if I tried doing it out of order.  We’re here, by the way.”</p><p>They had finally reached a wide wooden door, shaped like a cut off oval.  Axel opened it and gave a mocking bow.  “After you, <em>Master</em> Aqua.”</p><p>“As a keyblade apprentice, you should treat your seniors with more respect, Lea.”  It was a crackling old voice, venerable, and exactly as she remembered it.  Entering the room, it was like she’d never been gone.  Yen Sid sat in the same place, and the tower itself was the same around him.</p><p>As she examined her surroundings, reveling in the familiarity, Axel replied to Yen Sid.  “I’ve decided it’s Axel, actually.”</p><p>Yen Sid raised an eyebrow.  “Indeed?  Strange that you would choose that name.”</p><p>“Not really,” Axel replied, shaking his head.  “You know who I’m here for, and they have nothing to do with who I was before.”</p><p>“Very well.”  A slight quirk lifted Yen Sid’s lips.  “I shall endeavor to commit it to memory, as you so often request.”</p><p>Axel’s smile flickered again, quick and easy like a striking match.  “See that you do.  I’ll get back to working on getting my keyblade out while you bring Master Aqua here up to speed.”</p><p>Aqua watched as he left the room, still wondering just what that whole name thing had been about.  She learned, shortly, or at least the bare facts of it all.  Yen Sid took the time, and quite a bit of it at that, to tell her what had transpired while she’d been gone.  She’d heard part of it from Ansem the Wise when they’d met on the Dark Margin, but to hear the full tale of how Sora and the others had suffered in service of saving the worlds brought home just how much she should have been there for.</p><p>Ten years.</p><p>It was easier to think of her ten years in the Realm of Darkness than it was to think of that same decade passing in the Realm of Light.  In the dark time had not moved at all.  There were no days to mark its passing.  She had not needed to eat or sleep.  She had not had to go to the restroom, or perspire, or even breathe.  That was the special torture of that realm.  Every moment was eternity and an instant.</p><p>Now that it was behind her, though, it seemed harder to face the knowledge that the two little boys she’d met in the brightly shining world and the Princess of Heart that was their friend had become the successors to herself and her brothers.  Those once-children she could still remember as being so little had been forced to fight without any of the training or knowledge she’d relied on to make it through.</p><p>It hurt, knowing all the things she hadn’t been there for.  Knowing that Ventus and Terra had not been there for them either, that the worlds had continued in their spinning – or very nearly not – with no regard for the absence of those who should have been their protectors.</p><p>When Yen Sid had finished his tale, she wandered away, her eyes glazed over and her mind still trying to process everything she’d heard.  He tried to ask her a question, she thought, but Aqua couldn’t have said what it was.  He must have understood because he let her go, and as she closed the door to his chamber she saw the terrible sadness of age creasing the heavy lines of his face.</p><p>Her steps carried her up, though she could not have said where she meant to go.  Eventually, a small window appeared before her and, stepping through, she found herself on the roof of the Mysterious Tower.</p><p>Below stretched the small spit of land and trees on which it rested, and the ocean of amber light lay spread out beyond that.  Above, the stars-that-were-worlds twinkled, reassuring her that existence was safe, at least for this night.  A faint wind, the first natural one she’d felt in over a decade, caressed her blue locks, carrying a scent of exotic spices and far off worlds.</p><p>And sea-salt.</p><p>Aqua blinked as a blue ice-cream bar inserted itself into her vision.  Her eyes came back into focus.  She looked over to find Axel biting into his own bar and holding another one out to her.</p><p>“Here,” he said.  “You looked like you needed this.”</p><p>She took it without speaking and bit into it.  A noxious mixture of saccharine sweet and unbearably salty ice cream hit her tongue and she reflexively spat it out, coughing to get the taste out of her mouth.</p><p>“Hey watch it.”  Axel scowled.  “That stuff’s hard to come by now that Xehanort’s heartless control the Ways to Twilight Town.”</p><p>The terrible flavor had jolted her out of her introspection at least.  “I’ve had one meal in the past decade.  It’s a little strong for me.”</p><p>“That’s because you bit into it right away.  Try giving it a lick instead.”</p><p>“Fine.  But if I spit it out again, I’m spitting it on you,” she warned.</p><p>“If that’s what it takes for you to enjoy the icing on the cake, so be it,” he answered with mock solemnity.</p><p> Moving more tentatively this time, Aqua leaned forward and just barely flicked her tongue across the cold sweet bar.  The flavors were less overpowering when sampled in smaller measures.  She could appreciate the way the salt and sweet complimented and contradicted one another, building to something that was more than either could be alone.  An empowering union of opposites.</p><p>“It’s not bad,” Aqua allowed.</p><p>Axel laughed again, setting the spikes of his fiery hair to shaking.  “It’s good to have another person to share ice cream with.  And you looked like you needed something after that marathon session with Yen Sid.”</p><p>Aqua leaned back, resting on the arm not holding the ice cream.  “It’s a lot to take in.  I saw the beginning in some ways, but everything that’s happened since…” she trailed off, shaking her head.  “The worlds left me behind.  Or I left them behind.  And now I have to try to be a person in them again – I don’t know.”</p><p>“I get it, a little.”  Axel had finished his ice cream already, somehow, and he tossed the stick into the amber abyss before flopping down on his back with his hands behind his head.  “Yen Sid told you I was a nobody, right?  It wasn’t for quite as long as you were lost, but it still lasted the better part of a decade.  Years of just existing, only for the emotion of all those years, the guilt for everything I did, to crash into me the second I woke up with something beating in my chest again.”</p><p>She looked over at him, and found that he was staring far off into the distance.  “How did you manage it?” she asked.</p><p>“They needed me,” he said simply.  “My friends.  I promised I would always be there to bring them back, and that promise gave me something to hold on to.”  His gaze shifted to her.  “You’ve got something like that too, right?”</p><p>Aqua reached into a pocket and brought out the one keepsake she’d managed to keep undamaged after all this time: her wayfinder.  The star-shaped sapphire glass swung gently on its leather cord as she stared into its depths. “Terra and Ventus.  My brothers.  I can actually go find them now.  Ven’s still asleep somewhere in Castle Oblivion, but I’m the one who hid him and I can find him again.  And Terra.  I don’t even know where to start looking.  At least I can finally start though.”  For the first time Aqua let herself feel the reality of the situation.  All her thoughts, every footstep in the Realm of Darkness had turned toward saving the two people closest to her, and now she could actually work toward it.</p><p>That was a thought strong enough to bind together the shattered pieces of her world.</p><p>“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that you’re happy about where you are, but it gets hard not knowing where to look,” Axel warned.  “I don’t have the first idea where to go looking for my friends.  Roxas is trapped inside Sora, and we need Sora too much to risk trying to get him out.”</p><p>“And your other friend?” Aqua asked.</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“You keep referring to your friend<em>s</em>, plural.  Who’s your other friend, or where are they?”</p><p>Axel looked confused for a moment, then shook the off question.  “It’s just Roxas.  He was the only friend I made in the Organization.  Don’t know why I’d keep talking about multiple friends.  Guess it’s just a slip of the tongue.”</p><p>It could have been a slip of the tongue, but Aqua had just heard Yen Sid explain how Sora had been removed from everyone’s memory for an entire year while Naminé undid the harm she’d caused.  Who was to say there wasn’t another friend that had been forgotten somewhere along the way? </p><p>Even if that were true, at the moment there was no way to know for sure.  So she accepted Axel’s explanation without comment.  The two stared out across the amber void, each thinking of absent friends.</p><p>Finally, Axel sighed, dusted his hands off on that long black coat, and stood up.  He held a hand out to her.  “Hey, just in case no one else says it, welcome home, Master Aqua.”</p><p>Smiling, she took his hand and let him pull her to her feet.  “It’s good to be home, Axel, and it’s good to have met you.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For those who did not read the preceding story, Aqua met Luna Lovegood in the Realm of Darkness, formed a D-Link with her, and can thus occasionally use HP style magic.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The joy of homecoming wasn’t enough to prevent the nightmares. </p><p>Aqua hadn’t really expected it to.  She’d taken reasonable precautions, as best she could, and braced herself for the storm she knew her subconscious was brewing.  Before settling down to sleep she’d turned every light in the room Yen Sid had lent her as high as they would go.  When that seemed insufficient and shadows still managed to loom in the corners of the room, she’d turned to her own magic.</p><p>With minor efforts of will she’d created little orbs of light and set them to patrolling the nooks and crannies of the room, determined to root out every last trace of the dark.  They’d been imbued with enough magic to last until morning unattended, and Aqua had dared hope that that would be enough to mitigate the nightmares.</p><p>It had not been.  The second she’d closed her eyes she felt herself falling into the dark abyss.  The cloying emptiness of the shadow pressed close around her, and within seconds she bolted upright gasping for breath.</p><p>Clearly the little lights were not enough.  Perhaps something bigger was needed.  With a thought, she summoned Master Defender to her hand.  Despite Luna’s effort to get her to let it go, the keyblade still felt more natural than being empty-handed, and her hand itself still curved around its hilt with a fervor she suspected would never entirely fade.</p><p>Aqua lay back down on the soft aquamarine sheets she’d been given and brought her keyblade up across her chest.  The hilt rested atop her heart and the tip pointed towards her feet.  She lay like a king of old lying in state, and it should have felt comical at best and macabre at worst.  However, the heavy weight of the keyblade on her chest comforted her.  It alone, of all the things and people she’d known, had not abandoned her. </p><p>No, that wasn’t quite true.  It wasn’t fair at least.  She’d made new friends, like Luna, and she thought Axel just might join their number.  They had never let her down.  Still, they hadn’t been there in the shadow for a decade with her either.  That was a loyalty of which only her keyblade could boast.</p><p>The distraction and the keyblade seemed to work.  Aqua felt herself slowly drifting off to sleep.</p><p>Clawed hands scratched at her sides.  Whispers of distant friends sounded in her mind.  Aqua’s face contorted in her sleep, and she tossed and moaned as her nightmares grew deeper now that she’d finally found the realm of sleep.</p><p>The hand that held her keyblade clenched ever tighter, long past the point where a normal sword hilt would have either deformed or broken her hand.  A keyblade was no ordinary sword though, and this keyblade meant safety so long as she held it.  Nightmare after nightmare washed over her, and Aqua clung to the keyblade as her only port in the storm, huddling in its lee in the hopes of still being sane when morning came.</p><p>She was, if only just.  When Aqua woke fully she found her room the dark grey of pre-dawn light.  Her little light orbs had been absorbed at some point in the night when she’d reached desperately for all the power she could gather, and the release of that power appeared to have shattered the light fixtures.</p><p>Aqua yawned and stretched, muscles twinging at a release from a night of tension.  It had not been restful, but it had been needed.  Her eyes were still grainy as she readied herself for the day.  That done, she wandered back up to the roof of the tower.</p><p>With one leg over the edge and her chin resting on the other, Aqua stared out across the void, noting the slight change to the amber light that signified morning.  This was a liminal space, close to the border between the realms, and as such it felt much more at home at dawn and twilight than at less transitory times.</p><p>It had been a bad night, Aqua forced herself to acknowledge, and it might be a long time before she had a good one.  However, it was still better than the alternative.  Namely, not sleeping at all because she was in a realm that did not permit it.  She just had to keep focusing on the fact that, no matter how hard it was, nothing could be harder than her decade in the dark.</p><p>“Rough night?” a voice asked from behind her. </p><p>Glancing back, Aqua found Axel climbing through the window and onto the roof.  She took in his untamed hair and smudged eyeshadow.  “Looks like you had a rough night yourself,” she said.</p><p>“Bad dreams,” he said.  “It’s no fun feeling the guilt of years of bad living all at once.”</p><p>“Bad dreams for me as well.  After so long it’s hard to believe I’m really out of there.”</p><p>Axel cocked his head, an invitation to continue, if she wanted to.</p><p>It helped, knowing that he was haunted too and still willing to listen.   Still, more words weren’t what she needed.  She’d spent more time talking in the past two days than she had in years.  Instead, Aqua felt a desire to wash the stale nightmare-induced adrenaline from her blood with a fresh clean supply from an honest fight.</p><p>“How about a spar?” she asked, blood already quickening at the prospect.</p><p>“With you?” he asked, looking her up and down.  “You just got back from the Realm of Darkness yesterday.  You sure you’re up for it?”</p><p>“What exactly do you think I was doing in there?” she asked with a hint of amusement.  “I’ve been fighting for a decade.  I honestly feel weird for not having swung my keyblade at something in the past few hours.  Are you interested?  Master Yen Sid said you still hadn’t gotten your keyblade to reliably materialize.”</p><p>He chuckled.  “I know better than to take on a keyblade master with anything less than my best.  I’ll just use my chakrams.</p><p>Aqua nodded and stood, only then realizing that she had no idea where a good room for a spar might be.  “So, where’re we going?” she asked.</p><p>Axel led her back through the window and on another winding path through the machinery that had taken up residence at the heart of the tower.  Aqua knew she should start trying to learn her way around, but for now she was bewildered by the ups, downs, and rotations of the moving gears and platforms.</p><p>A short walk and an open door brought them to a wide and airy room.  It was far larger than anything that should have been able to fit into the tower, but Aqua was used to such minor mysteries from that place.  The floor was firm, slightly springy to the touch, and the walls were covered with blue foam padding.  Light came from fixtures set into the ceiling high above, not totally out of reach, but likely safe from anything except an intentional shot.  A few boxes and barrels were scattered across the room, likely to provide cover, but other than that it was bare.</p><p>Axel indicated a ring painted on the floor near the center, and took up position around the outer rim.  Aqua walked to stand opposite him.  Her keyblade was already in her hand, she realized.  In fact, it had been there ever since she’d awoken.  She really should work on getting comfortable without it drawn at some point. Sparing was an entirely appropriate time to have it out though.</p><p>“Ready to go?” Axel asked, drawing her out of her thoughts.  He summoned his chakrams in a flash of fire and held them by the edges in a loose swinging grip.</p><p>“Ready,” she answered, already planning her next moves.</p><p>In an instant, they both exploded into motion, darting sideways to circle around one another.  Aqua fired off a neat row of blizzagas, and was startled to see one clip Axel and slow him.  Not one to waste an opportunity, she rode the rail of ice her blizzaga had left behind to close the distance, and swung down to send him flying back into the wall.</p><p>With a painful sounding crack, the ice slowing Axel shattered and he slumped to the floor.  “Oof,” he ground out, struggling to stand.  “You’re stronger than I expected.  I thought your time in the Realm of Darkness would have left you weakened.”</p><p>She looked at him askance.  “Axel, we get stronger when we fight, and as I said before I spent a decade doing nothing but walking and fighting.  For all that I’m tired and not used to the Realm of Light, I’m probably a better fighter than I’ve ever been.”</p><p>Axel looked around the room at the titanic shards of leftover ice from her spells.  “I can see that.  I don’t think even Sora could sling that many blizzagas that easily, and he’s the strongest of us these days.  If he hadn’t had his power wiped out again anyway.  Alright, round two.  Here we go.”</p><p>With a groan of effort, he pulled himself upright.  He focused for a moment, and Aqua could feel the air grow hotter as he drew out his strength.  It felt good, reminding her of that heavenly shower she’d borrowed at Hogwarts.  Her muscles loosened and she felt light and floating free.</p><p>“Come on, then,” she taunted, bouncing on the balls of her feet.  “Now you know what you’re in for, so let’s see what you’ve got.”</p><p>Axel grinned.  “Check this out.”  He gave a shout, and cast his chakrams away from himself in a wide circle.  Where they flew a wall of flame followed.  Moments later, the two were trapped in a narrow circle of flame.  If it had been hot before it was sweltering now.  Aqua could feel herself begin to sweat, and she was almost distracted by the novelty of the sensation.</p><p>Behind her, the chakrams clanged together and bounced back along the ground, turning it to embers as they went.  Aqua jumped to avoid it, but there was no safe space to land.  She fired off another blizzaga and used the rail to buy time.</p><p>“Ah ah ah,” Axel taunted, blocking the projectile with his chakrams and sending one spinning out to melt her refuge.  “We’re playing on my terms now.”  He sent his second chakram spinning up in a fiery attack that also drew a pillar of fire from the ground.</p><p>Aqua raised her purple barrier, letting the momentum of his strikes keep her in the air as she gathered power.  When she was ready she sent the power surging into her keyblade, activating her bladecharge transformation and surrounding the keyblade with an iridescent sword many times longer than it usually was.  She saw Axel’s eyes widen at the change and she found a small smile tugging at her own lips in response.</p><p>She swung the mighty weapon down, sending the attacking chakram skittering off along the still-burning floor.  Axel knew better than to block that blow, and he melted back into the flame instead.  With nothing else to do, Aqua sank to the floor, jumping as often as she could to mitigate the damage.</p><p>Axel had learned his lesson about giving her a target.  Pillars of fire shot at her from all directions, some of which she only barely managed to block, but Axel stayed hidden in the flames. If that was how he wanted to play it, Aqua could adapt. </p><p>She started firing off blizzagas wildly.  The ice temporarily dimmed the flames, but they sprung back stronger than ever.  That wasn’t the point, though, the point was to cast as much blizzard magic as possible.  Sure enough, Aqua felt the power of true cold building inside her.</p><p>The bladecharge dissipated, but she didn’t need it anymore.  She jumped to the center of the room and pointed Master Defender at the floor.  “BLIZZAJA!” she screamed against the roar of the flame.  A huge ice crystal burst from her keyblade and impacted the floor with such weight she could feel the tower shudder.  Ice fought fire on the much-abused floor, and ice won.</p><p>Steam spread as the massive chunk of ice doused the floor and cooled the walls of flame until they could no longer sustain themselves. With a hiss, a great cloud of steam filled the room, and Aqua waited for it to clear so she could finally take the fight to her troublesome foe.</p><p>A dark shape moved in the steam, and Aqua spun, throwing her keyblade at the shape. Even as she did so, the whistle of moving air came from behind her, and she realized she’d been tricked.  She tried to turn, but the sharp edge of a chakram was at her throat.</p><p>As the steam cleared, Aqua could see the other chakram lying on the floor, pinned in place by her keyblade.  “Well played,” she acknowledged, panting from the effort of so much magic in such a short time.</p><p>“You’re not bad yourself,” Axel managed to get out.  He pulled the chkaram from her throat and let it disappear before flopping to the ground.  “I am not cut out for clinging to the ceiling like that.  Hanging out upside down was always more Xigbar’s style.”</p><p>Aqua took a seat next to him, grateful to have the chance to catch her breath.  “That’s where you were?  I didn’t think of that.”</p><p> “Yeah, when I saw you charging up that big spell I figured you’d use it to put out the ground.  Lucky I was right, eh?”  He coughed, and tried to sit up.  “Man, I could really go for some water.”</p><p>“Let me help you with that,” Aqua kindly offered.  She pulled on her connection to Luna to access her style of magic, sending a companionable, albeit mischief-tinged, pulse down the connection as she did so.  When Axel turned to look at her, she pointed her keyblade at him and cast “aguamenti,” sending a jet of water that soaked right through his coat, making it drip and cling to his muscled chest like a second skin.  “Oops,” she said innocently.</p><p>Axel blinked water out of his eyes and glared at her.  A glare made all the more fearsome by the fact that his wet hair was still spikier than it had any right to be.  “You’ve got me steaming mad, now,” he said, and it was true.  A bit of heat was quickly evaporating the water, and that just wouldn’t do.</p><p>“Aguamenti!” She called again, more firmly this time.  She was still untrained in Luna’s brand of magic, and she had some trouble controlling it.  Which, perhaps, explained why instead of a trickle it was a torrent of water that shot from her keyblade and knocked Axel back to the ground.</p><p>When she finally let him sit up he looked at her and made a helpless sort of gesture that clearly asked why she had done this to him.  She shrugged.  “I thought you still looked thirsty.”</p><p>He looked so aggrieved, with water dripping from each and every individual spike of hair that she just had to laugh.  Axel looked to be trying to hold on to his irritation, but her laugh proved contagious, and he soon was chuckling himself.</p><p>“Alright, Master Aqua, you got me good.”  He flicked water from his fingers at her, and she couldn’t help but notice that it was already warm from the absurd amount of heat he put out.  “I’ll be sure and remember this for our next round.”</p><p> “Are we going again?” she asked.</p><p>“Well sure,” he said, fighting his way back to his feet.  “Can’t let it end on a tie, now can we?”  He held out a hand to help her up.</p><p>Aqua took it and let him pull her to her feet, stumbling a little as he pulled harder than she expected.  He caught her as she braced herself against his chest.  “I’d have thought someone who can hit so hard would be heavier,” he said, and she could feel the deep rumble of his voice in his chest as he talked.</p><p>He really did radiate heat, she realized.  All the fire that had filled a room had come from him.  Oh, it was his magic, to be sure, but magic was sourced in the self. To have a heart that burned that hot, without affording the least thought to any other element, any other way of being, it was intoxicating, if dangerous.</p><p>“Aqua?” he asked, and she realized she’d been leaning against him without speaking for almost a minute.</p><p>Pushing away, she turned to hide an expression even she couldn’t quite have identified.  “I’m sorry,” she said.  “I’m still getting used to touching people again.  Getting used to there being people to touch.  It caught me off guard.”</p><p>Why had it caught her off guard?  Nothing ever caught her off guard, she couldn’t afford for it to.  If it did, the shadows would get her.  The shadows were everywhere, always.  Above, below, and on all sides. </p><p>Beneath her feet there was a bubbling pool of darkness.  It seeped up through the floor, oozing its way onto her legs.  Aqua barely choked back a scream.  She held her keyblade before her in trembling hands, desperately smashing it at the ground.</p><p>“The dark’s coming.  Run Axel, the Realm of Darkness is here!”</p><p>“What are you talking about?  Aqua?  Aqua!”  His voice seemed to come from very far away, but she couldn’t think about that now.  All she could do was stab at the darkness that sought to drag her back to the realm she’d so recently escaped.</p><p>Except she had escaped.</p><p>And she was in Yen Sid’s tower, so how could there be darkness here?</p><p>Hands grasped her trembling shoulders from behind.  Tentatively at first, but they weren’t claws so she leaned into them and they redoubled their hold.</p><p>“It’s not real, Aqua,” a voice said somewhere close to her ear.  “There’s no darkness here.  You’re safe.</p><p>Intellectually she suspected he was right.  But the darkness felt so real as it grasped for her.  She experienced a curious double vision.  One eye saw the darkness creeping up on her in all its terrible glory.  The other saw nothing but the practice room she’d spent the last hour sparing in.  Her breathing sped up as she tried to tell which was real and which was fake.</p><p>“Merlin, taught me a trick,” Axel said to her, low and soothing.  “Tell me five things you see.  Anything.  Aqua, I need to tell me five things you see.”</p><p>“Darkness,” she said at once, and she felt rather than saw him shake his head.</p><p>“There’s no darkness Aqua.  Try again.  What is something that you see?”</p><p>“Wooden floor,” she gasped out in between panicked breaths.</p><p>“Good, yes, that’s one thing.  What’s something else you see?”</p><p>Her eyes darted around, trying to look past the darkness she still thought was there.  “Ice.  Wooden splinters.  Little fires.  A window.”</p><p>“A window?  Oh hey, you’re right.  That wasn’t there before.  See, even the tower is on your side.” </p><p>He shifted a little, and Aqua leaned back further into his tight embrace.  It was real, she thought, and it wasn’t dark.</p><p>“Okay, now four things you can touch.  What are four things you’re touching?  Come on, you’re doing great.”</p><p>“Keyblade,” she said at once.  There was no comfort like holding a keyblade, and Master Defender fairly pulsed with a need to protect her.  “Shoes.  Skirt where it’s swirled against my legs.  You.”</p><p>“Er, right.  You’re getting the hang of it.  How about three things you can hear.  Can you do that?”</p><p>Aqua nodded.  “The tower’s machinery,” she said, noting the clattering coming from beyond their sparing room.  “The crackle of melting ice.  My heartbeat.  Sounds like it’s slowing down.”</p><p>She could almost hear the smile in his voice as he replied.  “Good, that’s good.  Almost done.  Two things you can smell?”</p><p>“Smoke, and cinder,” she said, the first words that came to mind.  His scent, she thought.  Smoke from their earlier battle layered over the smell for the fire itself and the leather of his coat.</p><p>“Sorry about that,” he said, not sounding sorry at all.  “Last thing.  What’s one thing you taste?”</p><p>“Blood,” she said.  “I bit my tongue”</p><p>Axel removed his hands from her shoulders, and gently turned her around.  “Ouch. I’d offer to heal it, but I don’t think you want your tongue being cauterized.”</p><p>Aqua shook her head.  She spat a mouthful of blood to the side, then brought a hand up and gestured across her mouth.  “Curaga,” she murmured, and she could feel her tongue knit itself back together inside her mouth.  A curious feeling, like her tongue was being tugged on.  She didn’t like it, and resolved to do her level best to avoid biting her tongue in the future.</p><p>She took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  Looking around, she found her double vision had faded.  The darkness was gone, or rather, it had never been.  Just the product of her frightened mind.  When she looked up Axel was watching her anxiously.</p><p>“I’m sorry for acting strangely,” Aqua said, her voice still trembling and a little hoarse.  “I don’t know what came over me.  I just saw the darkness leeching up through the floor and…” she trailed off.</p><p>“It’s no big deal, ya know,” Axel said, looking away.  “That was just something Merlin taught me.  Yen Sid sent me to him for keyblade training, but really, we just talked for like the first month.  Turns out losing everyone you care about can be hard to deal with.”  Aqua hiccupped at that and nodded in agreement.  Axel smiled a little and continued.  “Merlin went through that 5-4-3-2-1 trick with me a few times.  It was good for when I was getting too lost in my head about everything that had happened.”</p><p>Aqua closed her eyes and nodded again.  She took a deep breath, letting the air fill her lungs and absorb everything that she felt.  With the exhale she let it flow from her.  All the pain and the fear and, yes, more than a little anger sailed away on her breath and she wished it a good voyage and never to return.</p><p>When she opened her eyes she felt centered again.  “I’m sorry,” she said again, the steel returned to her voice.  “I shouldn’t have put that on you.  I’ll try not to break down like that again.”</p><p>Instead of looking comforted, Axel looked troubled.  “It’s okay if you do,” he said.  “I mean, I know it’s not fun, but from what I understand relying on friends is kind of part and parcel of this whole keyblade thing.  Plus, like I said, I went through this more than once with Merlin.  There’s no magic bullet here.  Hell, I might need to lean on you on my bad days.  Cinder knows there’s plenty of them.”</p><p>Looking closer, Aqua could believe that.  She remembered what he’d said about bad dreams.  The smudged eyeshadow from earlier had faded before her earlier soaking, revealing sunken eyes that testified to far too many long nights.</p><p>“You implied that we were friends.  Back when you said I could rely on you.”  Aqua held out a hand to him.  “I think I’d like that.”</p><p>He smiled, and it felt different than the previous smiles.  His other grins always had a bit of an edge, like an ember lurking under fallen leaves.  This one was open and welcoming, like a hearth on a cold dark night.  Reaching out, he took her hand and shook it firmly.</p><p>“Yeah, me too.  Friends.”</p>
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<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next morning Aqua was startled to discover that she and Axel were not the only keyblade wielders in the tower.  She had wandered towards the kitchen and, after several failed attempts, thought that she had managed to locate it.  Opening the door, Aqua came face to face with a young woman with beautiful auburn hair, maybe a few years younger than her own apparent age.</p><p>“Oh I’m sorry,” the girl said brightly.  “I didn’t know Master Yen Sid had any other guests.  What’s your name?”</p><p>“Aqua,” she answered slowly.  Aqua had the disconcerting sense that she was being examined in triplicate.  On the surface there were the girl’s own cheerful blue eyes, interestedly examining a stranger. Lurking just below that surface there seemed to be a pale blue reflection which watched everything with an endless sorrow.  Finally, at the deepest level, there was the gaze of Light itself, incisive and cauterizing.  It interrogated her heart for any shred of unworthiness.  It was Good, yes, but it was not kind.</p><p>It was that light that clued her in to the girl’s identity.  With that knowledge and the faintest trace of a familiar spell around the girl’s heart another piece of the puzzle fell into place.  “You’re Kairi, aren’t you,” Aqua asked.</p><p>“That’s right.  It’s nice to meet you Aqua.  Were you looking for some breakfast?  I just finished, but I’d be happy to sit and get to know you better.”  As she spoke, Kairi gestured Aqua back into the kitchen.</p><p>Aqua followed her in.  She took a moment to get her bearings before starting in on fixing something to eat.  Meanwhile, Kairi took a seat at the island counter in the center of the room and watched her with unabashed curiosity.</p><p>“It’s actually not the first time we’ve met,” Aqua said as she slid a slice of bread into the toaster.  “Yen Sid’s story reminded me and meeting you in person confirms it.  We met when you were a little girl and still living in Radiant Garden.”</p><p>Kairi’s eyes widened comically.  “You knew me in Radiant Garden?  What was I like?  Did I have any family other than my grandmother?  What was it like before Maleficent took over anyway?”</p><p>Aqua’s lips quirked at her enthusiasm “Breathe Kairi.  One question at a time,” she said, pouring a glass of milk.  “I can’t answer most of them anyway.  I only met you briefly, and I didn’t see much of Radiant Garden either.  I remember you because your light is the same, and I remember placing a spell of protection on you because of it.”</p><p>Aqua reached out one hand and tapped Kairi’s chest, just over her heart.  Kairi jumped when an answering light flashed inside her just where Aqua had tapped.  She frowned for a moment, putting the pieces together. </p><p>“Then does that mean it’s thanks to you I ended up on the Destiny Islands when Radiant Garden fell to darkness?”</p><p>“That’s right,” Aqua said.  Before she could continue the door to the kitchen slammed open and Axel stumbled blearily in.  “Good morning, Axel.”</p><p>Axel rudely ignored her in favor of trudging directly to the coffee pot, turning it on, and staring forlornly at the coffee as it slowly dripped down, filling the kitchen with the rich scent of roasting coffee.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” Kairi said, “he’s always like that in the mornings.  I don’t think he’d get up until noon if Yen Sid didn’t make him.”</p><p>Given what she knew of Axel’s nightmares, Aqua wondered if that were true.  Still, either Kairi knew about the nightmares and was doing her part to keep Axel’s business private, or she didn’t know and Aqua should keep it to herself.</p><p>“If you say so.  Anyway, I suspect my spell contributed to you ending up on the Destiny Islands when Radiant Garden turned into Hollow Bastion.  You probably also inherited the keyblade from me.” Aqua added, buttering her toast.  “You might not remember, but Mickey and I protected you from the Unversed, and during the fighting you touched your hand to my keyblade.  An inheritance ceremony usually takes a bit more, but given your nature as a Princess of Heart, that might have been enough to do it.”</p><p>Kairi sat back in her seat.  “Wow.  It’s crazy to think about how much of my life is different because of that one chance meeting with you.  Thank you, Aqua.  Aqua?”</p><p>Aqua wasn’t paying attention.  She had taken a bite of her buttered toast and had a rather strong reaction to it.  Her time in the Realm of Darkness left her very sensitive to stronger flavors, like sea-salt ice cream, but it made milder ones heavenly.  She had been transported to the planes of rhapsody at the taste of the simple breakfast food, and she only distantly heard Kairi’s voice at all.</p><p>After what seemed an eternity of bliss, she was brought back to the present by a finger prodding just the wrong spot on her back, sending her whole body squirming.  Aqua jerked away with what was most definitely not a yelp, and two faces swam into view.  Kairi looked worried, while Axel, who had finally gotten his coffee and turned back into a somebody, looked amused.  When he saw that she was back with them he turned to Kairi with a chuckle.</p><p>“You see, Kairi?  It’s like I said.  Just gotta nudge her every now and again when she gets lost like that.”</p><p>“Nudge me like that again and you’re getting a blizzard to the head,” Aqua teased.  “He isn’t far wrong though.  I’m still getting used to being out of the Realm of Darkness, and sometimes everyday things can take me by surprise.  If it happens again feel free to shake me out of it.  Not like he did though, that was just mean.”</p><p>“Ok.  I can do that,” Kairi said, “but what about if it happens when no one is around.  Should one of us stay with you to make sure you don’t get really stuck?”</p><p>“Nah, we’ll just keep an eye out and if we don’t see her for a while we’ll know to go looking.”  Axel drained the rest of his coffee and sat it down in the sink with a sigh of satisfaction.  “That’s much better.  Now c’mon, Yen Sid wanted to see all three of us up in his study.”</p><p>Kairi put her hands on her hips and looked pointedly at the mug in the sink.  Axel rolled his eyes, but washed it without further complaint as Aqua finished up her toast.  He held out a hand as she carried her dishes over.  “I might as well, I’m already up to my elbows in suds here.”</p><p>Considering that he’d washed a single mug, Aqua rather doubted that.  Still, it was a nice gesture so she handed her plate over with a simple word of thanks.  The three left the kitchen behind and made their winding way up through the tower to the study at its top.  Though Aqua was following the others, she thought she might have been able to make it on her own with only one or two minor missteps.  A solid improvement from the day she’d arrived.</p><p>Entering the study, they found Yen Sid seated in his customary place behind his desk.  Aqua spared an idle thought to wonder if he ever left the room, but before she could pursue that thought too far Yen Sid began to speak.</p><p>“Master Aqua, I am pleased to see you looking much recovered since we last spoke.”</p><p>Aqua inclined her head.  “Thank you Master Yen Sid.  Axel and Kairi have been helping me acclimate to this realm.”</p><p>Yen Sid returned her nod.  “And I am glad to see the three of you are becoming well acquainted.  It will make the task I have for you easier.  But first, I would like to come to understand how it was you escaped the Realm of Darkness.”</p><p>So Aqua told them all the story of her escape.  How she’d found a girl and an archway.  How she’d fought her reflection and won, with a little help from her new friend.  How she’d escaped into that world with the strange magic and fought the darkness that haunted it.  When she reached the part about performing the inheritance ceremony with Luna and Harry, Yen Sid stopped her.</p><p>“I want to be sure I understand you.  You passed on your keyblade to two of the children you met in this world?”  His tone was deceptively calm, but Aqua could sense the disapproval in his gaze.</p><p>“Given what they had to fight, and given the power I sensed in their hearts, I judged them worthy inheritors of the keyblade.”  She shivered just thinking back to her encounter with Voldemort.  “You didn’t see the evil that haunts their world.  It’s as foul in its way as Xehanort is in his.  Keyblades might tip the balance for them.”</p><p>“It was a rash decision.  Keyblades are not meant to be shared so freely, and you disrupted the world order in giving the blades to them,” intoned Yen Sid.</p><p>“Excuse me?” Aqua asked crossly.  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Axel and Kairi’s gaze darting from her to Yen Sid nervously, but she was unmoved.  “I am a full keyblade master not fallen to darkness.  As such, I have the right to pass on the keyblade as I see fit, and to uphold the world order in the manner I deem best.”</p><p>Yen Sid did not respond.  He looked at her coldly, and she was reminded that he was the foremost sorcerer of their age.  His regard was not enough to cow her though.</p><p>“If you will not speak, then I cannot listen,” she finally said.  “I will not threaten the world order without purpose, but neither will I blindly follow your instructions to prioritize it above everything else.  Not unless you can point to concrete errors that I made.”</p><p>Yen Sid looked away first.  “Perhaps it is time I learned to accept deviations from the old ways.  There are so few now who remember the days when an order of keyblade masters kept the worlds safe, and there is a reason for their passing.  I will insist on nothing.  I ask only that you be judicious in your words and deeds.”</p><p>Aqua accepted his concession with grace.  “I will be judicious.  And there are two things that may make my choice more palatable to you.  The first of which is that both Harry and Luna were able to summon their keyblades immediately.”</p><p>“Ahhhhh, now I see.  To wield a keyblade as soon as it is inherited takes a very uncommon person indeed.”  Yen Sid drummed his fingers on his desk as he thought.  “Since that is the case, then I acknowledge that you may have had the right of it.  Time will tell, I suppose”</p><p>“It will.  I do intend to return to their world when I can to see how they are doing.  Secondly, with regards to the world order, only one person other than Harry and Luna learned that I was not from their realm.  That person is a venerable old sorcerer, much like yourself,” Aqua offered as an olive branch.</p><p>Yen Sid inclined his head, accepting her words in the spirit of reconciliation in which they were meant.  “Very well.  You have convinced me that, at the very least, your actions were not ill-considered, though their end is yet unknown.  In any case, you may continue with your story.”</p><p>Aqua shrugged.  “There is not much to tell after that.  It turned out that that world had stories of Mickey, and of a version of you.  I used that to guide my glider on the pathway home through the Lanes Between.”</p><p>“You traveled the Lanes Between without your armor?” Yen Sid asked, his tone once more alarmed.</p><p>“I’ve made my own peace with the dark, like you say Riku has done.  I’m not arrogant enough to say that it poses no threat to me.  However, I have faced it, lived among it, and been submerged in it, and I still stand with the light.  The Lanes Between hold no danger, not for me.  Not that you two should get any bright ideas,” she added to Axel and Kairi, who both nodded their understanding.</p><p>Yen Sid still looked troubled.  “Thank you for your tale, Aqua.  This resistance to the dark troubles me, for it is like nothing else I have ever encountered.  But, as you say, others have found their own balance with the dark.  Something which I would also have said was impossible.  And it is true that no other has spent as long as you did in the Realm of Darkness and come out untainted.  In any event, you offer good advice to your juniors, and that you offer it so readily is reassuring given the task that I have for you.”</p><p>The three exchanged confused looks.  “What task is that, Master Yen Sid?” Kairi asked.</p><p>“Aqua, with Mickey still in the Realm of Darkness, you are the only properly trained keyblade master in service to the light.  As such, I would like you to take over the training of Axel and Kairi.  At least for the near future.”</p><p>Aqua blinked.  “Me?  I’m not unwilling, but surely you or Merlin would be better suited for the task.  Weren’t you yourself a keyblade master?”</p><p>“I was, but I am no longer.”  Yen Sid raised his hand, and Aqua felt the gathering of power that heralded the appearance of a keyblade.  However, there was a simple shimmer of light in Yen Sid’s hands, and nothing appeared.  He slowly lowered the hand and Aqua thought she saw a muscle twitch in his empty palm.  “As you see, the keyblade no longer answers my call.”</p><p>“I’m sorry,” Aqua said.  Her keyblade was the only thing she trusted completely.  She couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like to have it not answer her call.</p><p>“It was my choices that led to this, and I took this path knowingly,” Yen Sid said, waving away her concern.  “More importantly, I am troubled of late by the limits of my knowledge.  I have not left my tower in decades, and in that time many new things have found their way into creation.  As the first member of a new generation of keyblade masters, and a direct descendent of the lineage of keyblade masters stretching back to the Age of Fairy Tales, you stand at the crossroads between old and new.  I believe you are the best person to decide what from the old teachings should be preserved and what should be replaced.”</p><p>“That is a heavy responsibility.”  Aqua looked from Axel to Kairi and back again.  “What do the two of you think?  Are you willing to learn from me?  You should know that I won’t go easy on you.  There are aspects of traditional keyblade training that rival the worst of what Sora and Riku have been through.”</p><p>Determination filled Kairi’s face and her eyes shone with the light of her heart.  “That’s what I want,” she declared as if she was planting a flag on a mountaintop.  “I’ve been left behind or useless too many times.  Bring on your training, no matter what it is.  I have decided that I will stand shoulder to shoulder with them when we go face Xehanort.  I’ll do anything to make it so.”</p><p>“Well said!” Axel crowed.  “I’m getting all fired up too.  I’ve lived through working for Xemnas himself.  I can take whatever training you can dish out.”</p><p>Aqua felt afraid as she took in their bright enthusiastic faces.  She shot a glance at Yen Sid that clearly said, <em>they don’t know what they’re signing up for</em>.</p><p>His shallow nod responded, <em>yes, but that’s why they need you.  </em>Aloud, he said, “They have been working with Merlin, but I truly think they need time with a keyblade master.  Will you take on this task, Master Aqua?”</p><p>They needed her.  She’d had some half-formed thought of haring off looking for Terra, or fighting her way through to Ventus in Castle Oblivion.  Now that she could steer her steps the thought of postponing the search for her brothers was hard to bear.  But she had learned patience in her long years in the dark.  Two more capable keyblade wielders might be the difference between a final victory or a final defeat.  It was the smart decision to stay in the tower.</p><p>Besides, they needed her.  Aqua had never yet left someone in need when she could help them.  She had given her armor and her time in the light to save a brother she knew was already consumed by shadow.  And these two faces, one so full of light, the other a fragile ember just starting to flicker back to life, were so full of need.  It wasn’t really a hard decision at all.  She only hoped that they – or she – wouldn’t come to regret it when they learned what keyblade training entailed.</p><p>“I’ll do it,” she said at last.  Kairi clapped and Axel slung another of his easy grins that warmed her right through.  Even Yen Sid seemed cheered, the heavy set of his face lifting just a little.  “However,” she added, “I want a week to prepare.  I’ve got a lot to remember, and I’m still getting used to this realm.”</p><p>“That is fair,” Yen Sid acknowledged.  “There is urgency, but we yet have a little time to see this done properly.  The tower’s resources are at your disposal.”</p><p>Axel chuckled.  “Then I guess a week from now I’ll have to stop calling you Master sarcastically.”</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For those who didn't read the previous story, Aqua has a D-link with Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter and that is why she can use the spell she does in this chapter.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The next few days passed quickly for Aqua, though the nights did not.  During the day she spent time reading in Yen Sid’s tower, hoping to remind herself of all the details she’d forgotten during her time away.  There was much to learn, and though she didn’t intend to cram it all into her head, some grounding was necessary if she was to be as good a teacher as she intended.</p><p>It wasn’t all dusty books of course.  She spent quite a bit of time with Axel and Kairi, getting to know them both and reminding herself of all the little intricacies of interpersonal communication that she’d forgotten in her time away.  A couple of days in she even tried once again to pry into the mystery of Axel’s forgotten friend, though she didn’t get anywhere. </p><p>The rest of that day Axel seemed a little off, and that night something kept Aqua from sleep.  The first hint of what was awry in the tower came in the form of a change of temperature.  Aqua lay in her bed, fear of further nightmares warring with a need for sleep, when she noticed her room was warmer than it should have been.  Not by much, but the Realm of Darkness had never varied in temperature and she was still sensitive to even the smallest changes.</p><p>Curious, Aqua rose from her bed and, gripping her keyblade tightly, went to investigate.  She did not have far to go.  The room she had been given was along the outside of the tower about halfway up.  A sturdy wooden walkway ran along the circumference of the tower, with openings in the railing to permit entrance to the pathways through the machinery.</p><p>Instead of entering the machinery, Aqua felt the warmth from somewhere along the walkway off to her right.  She walked counterclockwise around the tower, pausing now and again to see if anything had changed.  Each time she felt that the air had grown a little warmer.</p><p>The light in the tower started to change as well.  An orange flickering shone through the machinery, and Aqua began to suspect just where she was headed.  Sure enough, a few moments later she found Kairi dressed in soft pink pajamas standing outside the open door to Axel’s room.  On the other side of the door an inferno raged, but only the slightest hint of heat and not a single tongue of flame could pass through the open doorway.</p><p>Kairi spared a glance for her as Aqua walked up beside her.  “Did he wake you?  The tower is usually pretty good about keeping him contained.”</p><p>“No.  I couldn’t sleep.”  She nodded toward the fire.  “That’s Axel’s room I take it?”</p><p>“He has nightmares,” Kairi said, flickering light casting somber shadows across her face.</p><p>“Don’t we all?” Aqua asked rhetorically, and she didn’t miss Kairi’s involuntary answering nod.  “Should we try and put it out?  Or wake him?  I can’t imagine he’ll be happy to find his possessions have burned up in his sleep.”</p><p>Kairi snorted.  “You really think Axel owns anything that isn’t fireproof?  No, the Tower contains his fire to his room where it can’t do any damage.  As far as waking him up,” she shrugged helplessly, “you’re welcome to try.  He can’t hear us from here, though, and I’ve never been able to get anywhere near him.”  Her arm involuntarily twitched as she spoke, and it drew Aqua’s eyes to the burns on her forearm.  The other girl had indeed tried her best, but she’d tried alone.</p><p>Together, they might be able to succeed where Kairi had failed.  Aqua cocked her head and considered what magic in her arsenal might let her get close to Axel.  She was distracted by a thump from next to her.</p><p>Kairi had punched the wall so hard that Aqua could see blood trickling down from where her hand still pressed into the stonework.  Her head hung low, auburn hair hiding her face, and her whole body trembled.  “I am so <em>sick</em> of this,” Kairi spat.  “I couldn’t do anything for Sora or for Riku when they were out fighting the heartless and the Organization.  And now I can’t do anything for a friend when they’re suffering right in front of me.  So I come watch, every time, because at least I can be a witness.”  Her watery blue eyes found Aqua’s own.  “That’s something at least, right?  Tell me it’s something,” she pleaded.</p><p>Gathering the trembling girl into her arms, Aqua smoothed her hair back, soothing her.  “Shhhh,” she said.  “It’s not nothing.  Sometimes being there, even a room away, is all anyone can do.  What does Axel say when he hears you were watching over him at night?”  It was a gamble, but if Aqua knew Axel at all, it was a calculated one.</p><p>“He says it makes the dreams better.” Kairi hiccupped, and drew in a deep breath.  “He says it’s like having one of his missing friends watching over him.”</p><p>“Then that’s what matters.  We can’t do everything, Kairi, just what we can.”  Aqua gently took Kairi’s injured hand in hers and set it right with a murmured healing spell and the flicker of green bells.</p><p>Kairi shook out the hand then sniffed and wiped her eyes with it.  “I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean to make this all about me.  It’s not.  It was just so similar and I…” she trailed off and her expression firmed up.  “Never mind.  Is there anything I can do?  Anything we can do to help him?”</p><p>With one arm still wrapped around Kairi’s shoulders, Aqua turned them both back to the inferno that still raged mere inches away on the other side of the room’s threshold.  It was hot and bright, and through its fury Aqua could just make out a dark figure tossing and turning on a metal bed frame.</p><p>“There is something we can do,” she said slowly.  “I’ll need to borrow your light, and a little magic from a friend of mine.”</p><p>“My light?” Kairi asked uncertainly.  “I’m not sure how.”</p><p>Aqua glanced down at her.  “You want to help him right?  Focus on that feeling deep in your heart.  Call up that desire to help, your compassion in the face of suffering, that determination to stand against the dark you had in Yen Sid’s study just a few days ago.  Tie it all together into a ball, everything you are, everything you want to be, and bring it to your hand.”</p><p>Kairi looked doubtful, but she closed her eyes and her face screwed up in concentration.  She pressed a hand to her chest, just over her heart.  “Sora.  Riku.  Axel,” she said, invoking the names of those she loved or those she wanted to help.  “No more pain,” she whispered.</p><p>The magic gathered around her, and the tower reacted.  Aqua felt it leaning in, watching a light be brought forth.  Kairi’s hair fluttered in the breeze of her power, and a light began to grow in her clenched palm.  It started as small and timid as the first star of evening, but it grew bright and brighter until sunbeams shot from between her fingers.  At last, her eyes opened and she held forth a ball of purest light in her palm.</p><p>It burned.</p><p>Aqua hadn’t expected that.  She should have.  She knew that her time in the Realm of Darkness had marked her deeply, even if she hadn’t lost herself to it.  Darkness was still part of her, contained and controlled, but there.  And the light of a Princess of Heart could not abide darkness in any form.  It would burn Riku too, Aqua realized, and she spared a moment’s sorrow for how deeply that would hurt the boy, no matter how far he’d come.</p><p>Kairi had done her part.  It was time for Aqua to do hers.  Clenching her own fist to her heart, she called on her link to Luna, and let the strange magic of that strange girl wash through her.  The light of the moon filled her veins with its magic, and where it ran, Kaira’s light no longer burned.  It would be an interesting thing for Kairi and Luna to meet, Aqua thought.  She’d rather like to see it happen.</p><p>Now able to bear the burning of Kairi’s light, Aqua took her arm from Kairi’s shoulders and clasped the hand that held the ball of light instead.  It flowed into her, mixing and melding with her own magic to form something new.  Something powerful.</p><p>Something beautiful.</p><p>Another mage might have been overwhelmed by the uniqueness of the three distinct types of magic she now channeled.  For Aqua, though, magic had been her first love and she relished the arcane challenge.  Besides, it was the magic of her friends and how could that betray her?</p><p>Aqua raised her keyblade – her own Rainfell, not Master Defender – and it shimmered and rippled with the light passing through it.  Gently, Aqua pressed it to the threshold of the room, feeling the magic of the inferno and the magic of the tower’s threshold keeping it contained.</p><p>“Aguamenti,” Aqua cast.</p><p>Water came at her call.  Water dappled with light like the sun in the shallows of a beach on a perfect day in a perfect world.  Kairi gasped to see that peace from home.  It did not fight the fire, there was no battle, no struggle or conflict.  This was not a clash.</p><p>It was a gentling.</p><p>A passage unfolded through the flame, cool blue walls gently bobbing in two straight rows.  It formed a dome above, keeping the dark smoke from the passageway. </p><p>“Come.  It’s ready.” Aqua said.  With no hesitation the two girls stepped through the threshold and into the pathway.  Their bare feet splashed in the inch of water that covered the floor.  Impossibly, the water below ebbed and flowed like the tides, though it had nowhere to go.</p><p>“Your magic did this?” Kairi asked in wonderment.  Her eyes roamed along the aquatic expanse as if searching for the tropical fish she would have found at home.  The walls turned the dancing light of the inferno into the friendly flickering of a summer sun, lighting Kairi’s face in a mirror of the way the inferno’s light had darkened it.</p><p>“Our magic did this together, and with the help of one other,” Aqua corrected.  “I couldn’t have done it alone.  Now let’s see if we can help Axel.”</p><p>The two walked slowly along the thalassic way, until they came to Axel’s bed in the far corner of the room, just below a window sealed over with magic to keep his fire in.  If he’d ever had sheets or a mattress it had long since burned away, and he writhed on the wrought iron bed frame.  Aqua felt a small twinge of amusement when she realized that he slept in pajama pants and a shirt with the image of his traditional black coat.  That amusement withered when she realized that he must have asked for those specific pajamas because he had spent so many years wearing only the coat that he didn’t feel safe wearing anything else.</p><p>Axel tossed and turned in place; his shirt dark with sweat and his spiky red hair hanging limp.  His eyes skittered beneath his closed eyelids.  The water had washed away the flame, but it hadn’t soothed his troubled dreams.  As they neared she heard him whimpering and pleading with the people in his dreams.</p><p>“No, please.  Roxas, don’t!”  Axel grit his teeth so tightly Aqua feared they would crack.</p><p>Kairi shot her a concerned glance and Aqua nodded her permission.  The girl ran to him to shake him awake.  However, the second her hand touched his arm he shot bolt upright and screamed a name.</p><p>“––––!“</p><p>It was a curious thing, that name.  It slipped into and out of Aqua’s mind leaving only the slightest impression that it had been a girl’s name.  It was a name belonging to someone that should never have existed.  Beyond a nobody – beyond even Namine, faint as she was – the owner of that name’s very life should have touched on the world so lightly that, now that she was gone, none should even remember her.</p><p>But Axel remembered.  He had carved that drifting flower petal (a purple petal perhaps?) so deeply into his heart that even the absence of memory had not removed it.  Something to think about when Aqua had a spare moment.</p><p>Kairi had been less easily distracted, and she persisted in shaking the now-sitting Axel until he blearily opened his eyes.  “Isa?” he asked muzzily as his eyes wandered over the magic around him to rest on Aqua’s blue hair.</p><p>She stepped forward and put her own hand on his shoulder.  “No,” she said.  “It’s Aqua and Kairi.  You were having a nightmare.”</p><p>“Aqua,” he repeated.  His eyes shifted over to the other girl and began to focus.  “Kairi.  Yeah.  It was quite a nightmare.  Ugh, my head.”</p><p>“Um, Axel?  We’d be happy to talk through your nightmare with you, but do you think you could do something about this fire first?” Kairi asked, eyeing the still-raging inferno beyond their protective walls nervously.</p><p>“Fire?  Oh, right.  That wall’s a nice bit of spellwork.  You’re gonna have to take it down for me to take in the fire though.”  He noticed their worried expressions.  “Just stay close to me and it’ll be okay.  C’mon, up on the bed.”</p><p>Aqua wasn’t certain about this, but if there was one thing she was certain Axel knew forwards and backwards, it was fire.  She and Kairi carefully climbed onto the iron bed frame.  Though it should have been hot, Aqua found it was scarcely warm to the touch, which helped soothe her worries.</p><p>“Ready, Axel?” she asked.  “I’m taking it down now.”</p><p>Axel stretched a hand up, as if reaching for the heavens.  If he had been standing outside and in his traditional coat it might have looked impressive; in his pajamas and while sitting down it just looked silly. </p><p>“Ready,” he said.</p><p>Taking Kairi’s hand, Aqua reached out to the magic that sustained their wall.  She teased apart the threads of the magic, letting Kairi’s light flow back into the other girl, making their linked hands glow in the dim room.  Her own magic settled back into her heart, minus the amount she’d spent to cast the spell in the first place.  She sent Luna’s magic rolling down the long link that stretched between the worlds to her friend, adding a trace of gratitude and getting a trace of compassion in return.</p><p>As the magics went back to their sources, the room’s temperature began to increase.  Aqua felt the hand that grasped Kairi’s grow slick with sweat and the Princess of Heart shifted uncomfortably.</p><p>“Axel,” Kairi prompted.</p><p>“On it,” he said, eyes closed. </p><p>The vast swath of fire began to sway and flow beyond the fraying borders of Aqua’s spell.  It rose on its own heat and clustered toward the ceiling before being drawn to Axel’s waiting hand.  It swirled above him, like water circling a drain, and the ball of fire in his hand grew brighter and brighter as more was added to it.</p><p>At last, the fire was all condensed back in Axel’s control.  He held a flickering ball of a brilliant white fire in his palm and stared at it while Aqua and Kairi averted their eyes.  Aqua thought she heard him whispering a prayer to the Primordial Cinder.</p><p>The moment passed.  Axel pressed the light to his chest and it sank through his shirt and his skin back to his heart where it belonged.  Aqua was left blinking rapidly in the sudden dimness it left behind, but she relished the cool of its absence.</p><p>“Do you want to talk about it?  Your nightmare, I mean.”  Kairi’s voice was hesitant.</p><p>Axel shook his head.  “Nothin’ to say, really.  Just the same as it always is.  Anyway, now that you woke me up I’ll be alright.  You’ll be getting back to bed then, I guess?”  His words tried for his usual equanimity, but the trembling of his hands as they clenched the frame of his bed put the lie to his pretended calm.</p><p>“I think I might stay for a bit, if you don’t mind,” Aqua said, feigning casualness.  “I was just lying awake anyway avoiding my own nightmares.”</p><p>Kairi caught on quickly.  “Yeah, me too.  I won’t be able to sleep after seeing that inferno.”</p><p>“Sorry to have frightened you,” he said, wincing.  “But if you’re staying then these should help.”  He reached under the bed and dragged out a dark wooden box.  Inside were a selection of pillows and blankets.  “The box is specially treated,” he explained.  “Won’t burn no matter how hot it gets.  I use it to keep flammable things safe when I feel one of those nightmares coming on.”</p><p>Aqua was utterly unsurprised to see that every single pillow and blanket in the box was some variant of a fire color, and they all clashed horribly with her blue hair and pajamas.  Fawkes sprung to mind and she sighed.</p><p>“I’m cursed,” Aqua said mournfully. </p><p>“How are you cursed?” Kairi asked, concern evident in her tone.</p><p>In answer, Aqua grabbed a pillow and blanket and wrapped them around herself.  Kairi got it immediately and stifled a chuckle.  “It’s not that bad,” she choked out.</p><p>Axel looked from one to the other, confused.  “What’s the deal?  Something wrong with the pillows?”</p><p>“Red and yellow just aren’t Aqua’s colors,” Kairi explained.</p><p>“It’s not the first time either.  Back in Luna’s world there was this phoenix that wouldn’t leave me alone.  I did a full inheritance ceremony with him standing on my head, and only at the end did I realize how ridiculous he made me look.”</p><p>“I mean, I think it looks pretty good.”  Axel tilted his head as he examined her.  “Everyone could use a little more fire in their life.”</p><p>“Not me,” Kairi said firmly.  “Earlier was enough fire for one evening.”    </p><p>The casual conversation gave Axel a chance to calm down from his nightmare and the subsequent inferno, and the next few minutes of handing out the rest of the pillows and getting everyone situated helped even more.</p><p>After everything had been distributed and everyone was settled back down onto the iron bed frame, Axel looked over to Kairi.  “Since you’re here, I’ve been wondering.  What are the Destiny Islands like anyway?”</p><p>“They’re peaceful, I guess.  Why do you want to know?”</p><p>He rubbed the back of his head.  “Well I’ve been there once or twice, but I never really got to take a look around.  Since Roxas came from Sora and all, I figure it’s basically where my friend grew up.  It made me wonder what kind of place it was, or what it was like living there.”</p><p>Kairi’s eyes lit up.  “If you want to hear stories from when we were little, I’ve got a ton of them!  This one time we were all on the play island and a storm kicked up,” she began.  Aqua and Axel listened, enthralled, to Kairi’s stories of what childhood had been like in that shining world.</p><p>Aqua went next, telling stories of growing up in the Land of Departure, and the mischief that first two, then three young keyblade wielders could get up to in peacetime.  Axel had plenty to share as well about his childhood in Radiant Garden.  This set Kairi off on another round of questions about the place that had once been her home.</p><p>The three talked quietly, enjoying the sense of peace and togetherness that late night conversation always brought.  Conversation slowly grew more personal.  Kairi talked about the fears she’d had toward Riku right before he’d opened the door to darkness and the islands had fallen.  Aqua talked about the darkness Terra had struggled with and how his bitterness at that struggle had led him right into the waiting dark.</p><p>Axel, as if trying to lighten the conversation, shared a funny anecdote about being chased out of a shop with a friend named Isa.  It seemed to be a non-sequitur, but Aqua saw his hands trembling where they held the edge of the blanket, and she made an informed guess about who Isa might be.</p><p>As time wore on, Kairi talked less and less.  She yawned once or twice and eventually slid down and rested her head against a pillow.  Her eyes closed, and Aqua and Axel both suspected she had fallen asleep.  With a glance they agreed to leave her be.  The three of them needed all the untroubled sleep they could steal.</p><p>Axel leaned back, stretching his arms behind his head.  “Ahh.  Oh, huh.  That’s a funny memory.”  He dropped his hands and looked across the bed at Aqua.</p><p>Aqua had her back leaning against the bed frame, cushioned by one of those ridiculously garish but surprisingly comfortable pillows.  Her knees were drawn up to her chest with her arms draped lazily on top of them.  “What’s that?”</p><p>“I met Ventus once.  All this talk about our childhoods brought it back to me.”</p><p>That got her attention.  Aqua sat up straight and the sleep cleared from her eyes.  “You did?  Was this in the Organization?”</p><p>“No, before,” Axel said, shaking his head.  “Back in Radiant Garden, before I became a nobody.  Isa and I,” he paused, then forced himself to continue without changing his tone, “we ran into this kid with a wooden sword that said ‘Terra’ on it.”</p><p>“Terra gave it to him on the night of the meteor shower,” Aqua said, smiling fondly.  “So what happened?  Did you two talk or something?”</p><p>Axel rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.  “Actually, I kinda challenged him to a fight.  Not a serious one or anything,” he said hastily to Aqua’s glare.  “Just to make sure he remembered me.  He seemed down and it cheered him up some.”</p><p>“Boys,” Aqua scoffed.  She followed it up with a light kick under the blankets.  “Asking ‘what’s wrong’ is too hard so you have to beat the feelings out of each other.”</p><p>“Hey!” Axel protested.  “Didn’t you do the exact same thing with our spar your first morning here?”</p><p>“That’s different,” Aqua insisted without reason, relishing the chance to indulge in a little ridiculousness.</p><p>“Different how?  Besides, I’ll have you know it was a delicate and deeply emotional fight.  Also, take that!”  Axel struck back, his bare foot nudging one of her feet aside and sending her legs falling sideways.</p><p>That insult could not be permitted to stand.  Aqua kicked out again, and for a moment the two were consumed with a need to pin the other in place, sparing with their legs under the blanket.</p><p>“This can end once you take back your insult of mankind,” Axel hissed playfully, trapping one of her feet with both of his.</p><p>“Never!  You’ve earned it, and more,” Aqua teased back, slipping out of his grasp and retaliating.  “I’ll put you in your place.”</p><p>Beside their covert conflict, Kairi stirred in her sleep.  Instantly, they both froze in place, watching to see if she would wake up.  Idly, Aqua noted that she’d frozen with her legs nearly parallel to his, feet pressed against his upper calves.  He really did radiate a ridiculous amount of heat, though since the blanket was not quite as warm as it could have been, she found she didn’t really mind.</p><p>Kairi turned over in her sleep and muttered something that sounded like ‘Paopu’, and they both sighed in relief.  Catching his eye, Aqua found herself giggling and Axel joined in, the both of them shaking with mirth and trying to stifle it before they actually did wake Kairi up.</p><p>Her!  Giggling!</p><p>It had been a very long time since Aqua could last remember giggling, certainly not since her mark of mastery exam.  Even before that, she’d always had to play the responsible one, always made sure Ven was taken care of and Terra wasn’t too lost in his own struggles.  Her, admittedly self-assigned, responsibility to her friends had meant she’d never afforded herself the luxury of giggling like a normal teenage girl.</p><p>She could now though.  Sure, she still had her demons to wrestle with, and Axel had demons of his own, but they could lean on each other without becoming the other’s responsibility.  They could take moments like this and find a way to enjoy them for what they were worth.</p><p>Feeling a sudden surge of an entirely different type of courage, Aqua nudged him gently.  “Hey, Axel.  I really like you.”  She gave a sweet and guileless smile, and rather enjoyed how it left Axel looking dumbstruck.</p><p>Despite his surprise, his answering smile fanned a tiny ember just starting to smolder in her heart.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aqua paced in front of Kairi and Axel.  The week of preparation she’d bought herself had flown by, and the time had come to see if she could serve as an instructor in the ways of the keyblade.  The Mysterious Tower had kindly provided a classic schoolroom, complete with a green chalkboard and the desks in which her two prospective students now sat.  Their expectant eyes followed her back and forth, waiting to see how she would begin this first lesson.</p>
<p>“There are two parts to being trained in the keyblade,” she finally said. Aqua stopped pacing between their two desks and looked at them both straight on.  “Neither are what you imagine them to be, but both are required to do this properly.  So it’s with the keyblade itself that we’ll begin.  Tell me, what is the keyblade?”</p>
<p>“It’s a weapon,” Axel answered at once.</p>
<p>“I think it’s a tool,” said Kairi.</p>
<p>Aqua shook her head.  “I can see why you each would think so.  But no, a keyblade is more than either of those things.  Let me put it like this.  Axel, you traveled to a lot of worlds while you worked for the organization, right?”</p>
<p>He shrugged.  “Sure.  They sent me on a decent number of recon missions.”</p>
<p>“And the worlds are pretty different from one another, right?”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he chuckled.  “About as different as can be.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know if you ever made it there, but there’s a world Sora’s been to called the Land of Dragons.  It’s a large world, lots of people, ruled over by an emperor.”  Aqua paused to see if they were following and was pleased when they both nodded along.  “Axel, could anyone in that world stop you from opening a portal in his throne room and killing him?”</p>
<p>They both stopped nodding and stared at her in surprise.  “I wouldn’t do that,” Axel said uneasily.</p>
<p>“Never mind what you would do,” Aqua pressed.  “Could anyone stop you?”</p>
<p>“Probably not,” he admitted hesitantly.  “They’ve got some decent fighters, but not much magic, and no one who could react to a portal opening suddenly at close range.</p>
<p>“Right.”  Aqua turned to the chalkboard and drew two circles.  She labeled one Land of Dragons and the other Agrabah.  She added lots of stick figures in each and put a hat on one stick figure at the top of the Land of Dragons circle before x-ing it out.  She turned back to her two students.  “So, the emperor is dead.  Let’s suppose you leave behind one of the scimitars they use in Agrabah.  Somewhere else you leave open a portal connecting the worlds.”  Aqua added two straight lines making a path between the circles.  “Then what happens?”</p>
<p>Kairi looked faintly nauseous, but answered with determination anyway.  “I guess they attack one another.  And Sora mentioned that the Land of Dragons had those rocket things so it’s probably a pretty uneven fight.”</p>
<p>“Uneven is a good word for it.  The Land of Dragons has gunpowder, Agrabah does not.  So, unless the Genie interfered, Agrabah would probably be completely wiped out in days.”  Aqua drew an X through the circle labeled Agrabah.  “Two worlds thrown into chaos with nothing more than an afternoon’s work for a keyblade wielder.”</p>
<p>“I could have done that back in Organization XIII,” Axel objected.  “Not that I would have,” he added hastily.  “But we had the power to do that then too.”</p>
<p>“True, but with a keyblade that ability is dialed up to eleven.”  Aqua put her chalk down for the moment and came to stand in front of them again.  “Remember Sora’s second time in Olympus?  He unlocked a seal placed by the king of that world’s gods.  And I think Yen Sid mentioned that Sora cut through skyscrapers during the final battle with Xemnas.  The point is that against a determined keyblade wielder there’s no real defense for an inhabitant of a normal world.  You can’t hide from a wielder either.  If they really want to find you they can just follow their heart and trust the keyblade to lead them.”  She fixed them both with a serious look.  “So, with this in mind, what is a keyblade?”</p>
<p>Kairi still didn’t get it, that much was plain to see, and Axel was only starting to catch the glimmer of the truth.  “It’s power,” he said softly.</p>
<p>Summoning her own Rainfell, Aqua placed it point-down against the floor and rested her hands on its hilt .  “A keyblade is agency,” she said.  “It is, at its most fundamental, the capacity to effect change.  It enables those dedicated to putting their will upon the worlds.”</p>
<p>“Can’t we just not do those things?” Kairi asked plaintively.  “I don’t want to kill anyone or start any wars.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, I thought ‘putting our will on the worlds’ was exactly the opposite of what we’re supposed to do as keyblade wielders.  Something about a world order?”  Axel added.</p>
<p>“You won’t be able to help it,” Aqua said flatly.  “Just by showing up with the powers the keyblade grants you, you are forever altering the fate of that world.  Hopefully for the better.  Look at Sora.  He’s visited dozens of worlds by now and all of them are different for his having been there, mostly for the better.  But that’s why traditional keyblade training focuses on the importance of maintaining the world order, because to wield a keyblade is to want to break it.”  Suddenly, Aqua clashed her keyblade against the floor and barked, “Summon your keyblades!”</p>
<p>Axel and Kairi sat ramrod straight at the command and obeyed without thinking.  Both brought their hands up to summon their keyblades, and both got nothing more than a few sad spluttering sparkles.  Axel just sighed at his familiar failure, but Kairi stared at her hand in disbelief.</p>
<p>“I could summon it before,” she said, confused.  “Why can’t I do it now?”</p>
<p>Aqua rapped her keyblade on the floor again, more gently this time, drawing their eyes back to her.  “You can’t summon your keyblade now because, after that lecture, you’re afraid of the agency a keyblade represents.  You worry that you'll cause the damage I just mentioned.  There’s an old saying: a keyblade will not live in an unwilling heart.  Take a moment to think instead about why you want to wield a keyblade.”</p>
<p>Kairi lowered her gaze and frowned.  “Sora and Riku,” she whispered.  A moment later her keyblade, Destiny’s Embrace, flashed into her hand.  Kairi sighed in relief.  “I thought I’d lost it.”</p>
<p>Aqua let a trace of amusement show in her tone.  “A fine keyblade master I’d be if I lost my pupil’s keyblade during her first lesson.”  She sobered quickly.  “So, I’ve danced around it enough.  I mentioned two parts to being trained in the keyblade.  What do you think they are?”</p>
<p>“You – You have to want it.  Power.  Agency.  The keyblade itself.”  Kairi straightened her keyblade in front of her and stared down its central golden-red shaft.  She took a deep breath.  “You have to want it and be willing to use it.”</p>
<p>Aqua nodded.  “That’s one part.  The emphasis is on being willing to use it in some way.  It can be as small as Sora’s desire to help everyone he meets, or it can be as large as Xehanort’s world-spanning ambitions, but you can’t cling to the status quo.  On the other hand, without the emphasis the training places on preserving the world order, keyblade wielders would give in to the temptation to change the worlds without considering the ramifications of those changes.  Now, Axel, from that I think you should be able to figure out the second aspect of keyblade training.”</p>
<p>Axel looked off into the distance, gears clearly churning through Aqua’s lesson thus far.  “You mentioned killing an emperor and starting a war as examples of things a keyblade wielder could do,” he finally said.  “But I’m sure you don’t want us actually doing stuff like that.”  His green eyes found hers and, as she expected, she could easily read the guilt written there.  “It’s about making us into the type of people who would act, but wouldn’t do those sorts of things.  On purpose or by mistake.”</p>
<p>“Right again,” Aqua said.  “The first part of the training, becoming a person who is capable of choosing how the worlds should be, is the only one the keyblade requires.  The second, becoming a person who can be trusted to choose, has been passed down from master to pupil in hopes of avoiding the ruin keyblades so often seem to bring to the worlds.”  She turned to write those two crucial pieces of information on the chalkboard</p>
<p>“Heh,” Axel chuckled, though his amusement clearly was only surface deep.  “Well clearly Kairi’s already set on the second part, being a Princess of Heart and all.”</p>
<p>“Yes, she can be trusted to use her power for good, as best she knows it.” Aqua tapped the first part of the training.  “Her trouble is in becoming the kind of person a keyblade needs to wield it.  Incidentally, Princesses of Heart have historically almost never been able to wield a keyblade, despite often interacting with keyblade wielders.  Do you have a thought as to why?”</p>
<p>Kairi frowned, trying to work through it.  “All the princesses have strong hearts, I know that much, but that’s not enough.  They – we – need more than the strength of our heart for a keyblade to choose us.”</p>
<p>“I’ll give you a hint,” Aqua said.  “There’s one other Princess of Heart I think might be able to wield a keyblade.”</p>
<p>“Jasmine!” Axel said suddenly.  “She’s the other one, isn’t she?  Because she ran away from her home to see the world, and because she helped fight back against Jafar.  She was willing to act against the status quo on her own.  All the other Princesses of Heart are reactive.”</p>
<p>“But I haven’t done anything like that,” Kairi objected.  “Even though I helped when I could, it still seems like I was just reacting most of the time.”</p>
<p>“That’s not true.  Remember when I, ah, tried to kidnap you?”  Axel looked sheepish at having brought up something he was less than proud of so he hurried on past it.  “Anyway, you decided to look for Sora on your own.”</p>
<p>Kairi looked slightly cheered by that.  “Right, and I fought the heartless in the Castle that Never Was.  Is that the kind of thing you’re talking about?”</p>
<p>Aqua wiggled her hand in a so-so gesture.  “That’s part of it.  However, if I had to guess, I don’t think that would be sufficient.  Instead, I think it’s from your other half that you draw your keyblade.”</p>
<p>Confusion was writ plain on Kairi’s face, but Axel understood immediately.  “Naminé.  You’re talking about what Naminé did in Castle Oblivion.  She stood up to the Organization because she cared about Sora, and she spent a year undoing the harm that she’d caused because she wanted to set things right.”</p>
<p>“Yes.  Naminé <em>chose</em>.  She went from a simple puppet to someone with their own desires, and then acted on those desires in a way that reverberated throughout the worlds.”  Aqua broke off as she saw Axel wincing.  “Axel, what’s wrong?”</p>
<p>Axel rubbed the back of his head.  “A puppet that became a somebody,” he said softly to himself.  Then he shook it off.  “Nah, it must be nothing.  Continue, teach.”</p>
<p>As Aqua filed that episode away in a folder marked with a name that couldn’t be remembered, she turned to write on the chalkboard behind her.  First she drew a little hand resting on the hilt of Aqua’s own keyblade, then a stick figure with a sketch book standing against tall figures in Organization cloaks, and finally Kairi herself holding her keyblade.  She finished the drawing with arrows point from one to the next.</p>
<p>“You see,” she said, dropping the chalk and turning back to her students, “you always had the potential.  When you touched my keyblade you inherited the right to be tested by the keyblade.”  Aqua tapped the first image, without looking back at the board.  “And when Naminé defied the Organization she passed that test.”  She tapped the second image.  “And through her you have the right to use a keyblade, which you then did when the need arose.”  Aqua tapped the final image.</p>
<p>Kairi looked stricken.  “You mean my keyblade isn’t really mine?  You’re saying I only have it because of Naminé.”</p>
<p>Aqua’s drew on memories of her own Master’s sternness to lend weight to her voice as she spoke the harsh truth.  “Yes.  You wield a keyblade that someone else earned, and since Naminé sleeps within you, she can’t lose her own ability to wield a keyblade.  As a result, you will never truly know if you deserve your keyblade, only that if you lose it, it’s because of your own flaws.  That said, I have faith that you can earn your keyblade.  You and Naminé are cut from the same cloth after all.  But you must find your own capacity for choice, your own agency, or your keyblade will be little more than a borrowed hunk of metal in your hands.  That is what this training will be for you.”</p>
<p>Kairi flinched back into her seat.  Axel looked from Aqua to Kairi and back.  “Easy there teach.  No need to go right for the jugular.”</p>
<p>“That’s what keyblade training <em>is</em>.  I told you this could be as hard as what Sora and Riku went through, and that wasn’t an exaggeration.  Do you want to know what training was like for my generation of wielders?”  Aqua tapped at the board.  “It started with conversations like this, poking and prodding to find the weakness in our nature.  Once those were found the real work could begin.”</p>
<p>Aqua turned away from her students, and when she spoke it was in a voice heavy with strain.  “Terra’s weakness was the darkness inside him.  Every time that darkness was exposed the Master would take him to a chamber deep beneath the Land of Awakening where there is no darkness.  In the unforgiving light of that place he would force Terra to confess every darkness within his nature.  Every dark thought and bad impulse was dragged from him and into the light to be scoured away.  I would comfort him after those relentless hours and I remember him wishing the Master would just beat him instead.”</p>
<p>“That’s horrible,” Kairi said.  “That’s not what the light is.”</p>
<p>“That’s not what light is to <em>you</em>,” Aqua corrected.  “It burns the rest of us, to a greater or lesser degree.  A good burn, far preferable to the seductive corrupting influence of the darkness, but usually not a pleasant one.  Isn’t that right, Axel?”</p>
<p>Uncertain, Kairi glanced over at Axel’s face and found him unwilling to meet her eyes.  “I mean, I wasn’t going to say anything, but… Yeah, Aqua’s right.”</p>
<p>Kairi shook her head, disbelieving. “I don’t understand,” she said plaintively.</p>
<p>“You don’t.  That’s why you need training.  You’ll need to learn to strike a very fine balance between preserving your light and gaining the knowledge and will you’ll need to change the worlds.”  Aqua grew almost wistful.  “My training was similar to what yours needs to be.  My weakness was compassion.  I was too willing to act to help the people in front of me, that I didn’t pay enough attention to the consequences of those choices.”</p>
<p>“And how did that get trained out of you?” Axel asked.</p>
<p>“There’s another room in the Land of Departure which both Ventus and I used for training.  It can make an incredibly convincing illusion, and it makes you forget that you’re in an illusion.  The Master would use it to put me in terrible situations.  Watching armies sack cities, worlds fall to darkness, that sort of thing.  Most of the time I was required to do nothing as it happened.  But you can’t train a keyblade wielder out of interfering entirely, so every so often there would be a world that I could help.  And if I judged wrong whether or not I was supposed to help the consequences were terrible.  Ventus’ training was the opposite.  He was nearly catatonic when he came to us, and his training was to intervene every single time, no matter how hopeless or hard the challenge.  I envied him the opportunity to help that he was given, even though I knew there was nothing harder for him than to have to intervene.”</p>
<p>Aqua shivered.  “None of it was real.  I know it wasn’t real.  But the room itself always made me think it was, and remembering a city in flames when I could have prevented it never really stops hurting.  I learned, though.  I got better at finding the balance between interference and unintended consequences, and because of that my Master judged me ready to become a master in my own right.”</p>
<p>Aqua blinked and came back to herself, remembering the lesson she was supposed to be teaching.  Her two students were regarding her with horror.</p>
<p>Kairi swallowed heavily and found her voice.  “Is that what you’re going to do for my training?  Force me to live out my worst nightmares until, what, I break and then can molded in the proper way?  I think I’d rather be thrown to the heartless and take my chances with them.”</p>
<p>“You’d die,” Aqua said bluntly and Kairi flinched again.  “Maybe not against the heartless, but certainly against Xehanort.  Look at this lesson.  It took me a handful of sentences to keep you from summoning your keyblade.  Riku did the same thing to Sora at Hollow Bastion.  We’re both novices compared to Xehanort.  You wouldn’t get a swing of your keyblade off before he’d have his claws sunk into your mind to unearth your every doubt.”</p>
<p>Aqua stepped close to Kairi’s desk and stared down at the younger girl, holding her transfixed with her gaze.  “You thought that this training would be sparring and spells, and those have their place.  But the true work of a keyblade wielder is in their mind, and minds don’t change easily.  Are you able to endure the pressure it will take to truly change your mind?”</p>
<p>Her chair screeched as Kairi pushed herself away from Aqua.  She stood, unsteady on her feet.  “I need to go,” she choked out, and as she fled the room Aqua saw the tears gathering in her eyes.</p>
<p>Sardonic clapping greeted Aqua as she turned to her one remaining pupil.  “Well done, teach.  You sent half your class running for the hills in your first lesson.  And here I thought we were all a little closer than that.”</p>
<p>Though well deserved, his biting words still hurt.  In those words, Aqua saw traces of how he must have been as a nobody: a wild blaze using anyone in reach as fuel to fill an unfillable void.  He had been dangerous then, and he still remembered how to be the Fury of Dancing Flames.  She needed to remind him of that, for his own sake.</p>
<p>With a heavy heart for the damage she was about to do to their burgeoning bond, she turned her full attention on him.  “We’re close enough, Axel, that I am willing to say what needs to be said to train you and Kairi.  I want you alive to be mad at me, and if being harsh is what it takes, then so be it.  We’ve been over Kairi’s challenge and now it’s your turn.  You still have trouble summoning your keyblade.  Do you want to know why?”</p>
<p>He scoffed.  “I just haven’t quite got the trick of it down, that’s all.”</p>
<p>Aqua’s voice was hard, each word was a raindrop on the ember that burned between them.  “You’re still running, Axel.  A keyblade is agency and you’re too afraid of yourself to follow through on the impact you would choose to have on the worlds.  And that fear cuts two ways.  You fear that with a keyblade you won’t be able to stop yourself from setting the worlds aflame, and you fear that, even with a keyblade, you won’t be able to save your friends.  Until you master your fear, your keyblade will remain out of reach.  As will those friends.”</p>
<p>Axel was not as graceful in reaching his feet as Kairi had been.  Anger made his movements ponderous as he rose, and the dancing tongues of fire on the tips of his hair cast terrible shadows across his face.  For a moment, Aqua thought he might attack her, and she honestly would have preferred that to continuing to tear him down.  He didn’t, though.  He was better than that, and she was not surprised that that was the case.  As Axel strode from the room he left scorch marks in the shape of footprints for every step he took.</p>
<p>When the door closed behind him the temperature in the room decreased to a more manageable level.  Aqua let out a deep breath and allowed her tense body to finally relax.  She had hurt him, hurt them both.  Quite possibly she’d damaged their nascent friendship beyond salvaging.  All because it had had to be done.  She envied Sora, Luna, and Harry, who could learn their keyblades on the battlefield.  It was harder in many ways, and infinitely more dangerous, but it left your heart relatively untroubled.  Of course, that was because only people whose hearts were already fit to bear a keyblade found themselves able to learn their use in the midst of battle.</p>
<p>“Welcome to keyblades 101,” Aqua said bitterly to the empty room. “Your first assignment is to shred your sense of self.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the expectedly disastrous lesson, Aqua found herself wandering the tower again, unwilling to return to her own room and avoiding the places she knew for fear of running into Axel or Kairi.  She let herself get lost in the complex paths of the endless and – probably – pointless machinery.  It’s constant rhythmic rumble was soothing in a way, and she let it take her where it would.</p><p>As time passed, she found herself trending upwards, back towards Yen Sid’s chamber at the tower’s peak.  Nearing the chamber, she heard the unmistakable sound of raised voices.  Shouting was uncommon within the Mysterious Tower.  With Sora absent none of the current residents were given to making much noise.  Axel was, perhaps, the noisiest of them, and even he had mellowed considerably from his angrier days.  Aqua, then, was surprised to hear the shouting, though it was not Yen Sid’s voice doing the yelling.</p><p>“How many more, Yen Sid!  How many more broken children are you going to send to me?”  The voice was hoarse, rusty as though coming from one not given to anger or high volume.  Aqua drew closer, feeding a morbid curiosity.</p><p>“As many as it takes,” answered Yen Sid, ever calm, ever reasonable, and only those familiar with him would detect even a hint of strain.  “You should know this by now.  There is no other choice.”</p><p>Nearing the cracked door, Aqua peered inside.  Merlin stood face to face with Yen Sid, and though she could not see his face from the outside, she could still feel the energy of his anger radiating from him in waves.  Yen Sid’s emotion was more tightly contained.  Instead of radiating his emotions, he simply grew more intense, inhabited more fully his role of wise old sorcerer.  It reached the point where a watcher might forget that he was anything other than a human-shaped manifestation of magical power.</p><p>Watching the two old men clash like that, Aqua understood why they alone of the previous generations had survived.  They had adopted different strategies, to be sure, but each had dedicated themselves to their strategies wholeheartedly.</p><p>Yen Sid was the consummate strategist.  He was capable of moving keyblade wielders like chess pieces to ensure the survival of the realms.  As for what he’d had to sacrifice to become that person, well, Aqua wasn’t sure.  She suspected, though, that whatever heart remained to him must be in tatters, torn to pieces again and again in service of the worlds’ necessity.  As he had shown her, he could no longer wield a keyblade, and now she wondered if it was because his heart was simply too broken to support it.</p><p>Merlin had chosen the opposite.  He would help, yes, but he claimed no responsibility for the fate of the worlds.  It very much fit that a man like him would be drawn again and again to the book containing the world of Winnie the Pooh.  He was kind, even where kindness would see the worlds fallen to darkness.  If he had ever been able to wield a keyblade, Aqua was very sure he could not do so anymore.  He had abdicated too much responsibility to be fit to be a wielder.</p><p>Their natures meant that, though they stood on the same side, it wasn’t surprising that they clashed.  Aqua was so lost in thought that she was startled when Merlin stormed out of Yen Sid’s room and almost bumped right into her.</p><p>Merlin’s face was strained and ruddy with his unfamiliar anger, but it softened when he saw her standing there.  “I don’t know how much of that you heard, my dear.  Regardless of his reasons for asking me to speak with you,” he said, jerking a thumb at the room behind him, “I would be happy to lend a listening ear if you ever need one.”</p><p>“Thank you,” said Aqua.  “I’ll keep that in mind.”</p><p>Merlin hesitated, as if he knew she wasn’t taking him seriously, then sighed sadly.  “I do mean that, you know.  You’ve been through a very difficult experience.  Friends can help, and I hope they are doing so, but sometimes a professional is needed to lean on.  Heaven knows I can offer that, even if I can’t help with the fight you youngins are facing.”</p><p>There was a flash of light, and when her eyes cleared Merlin had disappeared.  Aqua stared at where he’d stood for a moment, thinking of his offer, then she strode to Yen Sid’s door and pushed her way inside.</p><p>The old sorcerer sat where he always did.  His head was resting against the back of his chair and his eyes were closed.  His pointed hat had crept forward on his head and threatened to fall off entirely, though he didn’t look like he could muster the energy to care about that just then.</p><p>“You were fighting about me?” Aqua asked, not sure if Yen Sid would accept her company at the moment.</p><p>Yen Sid responded without raising his head to look at her.  “Yes.  After your episode in the training room I thought it best to have Merlin look in on you.  You are, at the moment, capable of fighting Xehanort, and he objected when I told him that keeping you that way must be the top priority.”</p><p>“Xehanort must be fought.  You can’t spare me to a breakdown now of all times.”</p><p>That did get him to look at her.  “Yes.  You understand.  If we win the day, there will be plenty of time to make you whole again.  If we do not, it will not matter that you died whole.”</p><p>Aqua nodded, but that bitter truth did not improve her already foul mood, and in her anger she hit upon something else to be upset about.  “Did Axel tell you about my… episode?  I thought he’d have the courtesy to keep it to himself.”</p><p>“He did not.  I know what occurs in my domain.  Another of the tower’s minor mysteries.”</p><p>“Yes, you know so much.”  Aqua stalked forward, her steps tight and furious.  “You know the answers to everything, possess all the wisdom of the order of keyblade wielders.  So, to my mind, that raises a question, if I may.”</p><p>“You may,” Yen Sid acknowledged, not as if he wanted to continue the conversation, but as if he knew it was utterly inevitable.</p><p>Aqua stood directly in front of his desk and stared Yen Sid down.  “Did you know I was trapped in the Realm of Darkness?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p> Rage brought darkness bubbling up inside her.  A tidal wave of fury fed by years of isolation and neglect.  Red haze colored her vision and a terrible strength filled her veins.  She’d wondered, once, how Terra could have been tempted by the darkness considering how strong he was without it.  What did he need that tainted power for?</p><p>Now she understood.  She could have simply swung her keyblade through Yen Sid’s skull, smashed right through his grandfatherly concern, but that wouldn’t have been as satisfying as drowning him in the very thing he’d spent his life fighting.  Aqua imagined raising her keyblade and giving him just enough time to realize his peril before blasting him with all the Realm of Darkness had given her.</p><p>She imagined it, but she did not move.  Yen Sid’s impassive contemplation of her anger threatened to send her off again.  Her fist creaked where it clenched around her keyblade, in her hand since the disastrous lesson, but the darkness made no visible sign.  It did not gather around fist or blade, and it did not infect her, turning blue eyes gold.  The darkness rose like a tide with her anger and she let it crest and crash, riding and not being ridden by it.</p><p>When the wave had spent it’s force she took in a breath and let it out.  “Why?” she asked, voice tight, but controlled.</p><p>In response, Yen Sid nodded slowly.  “Well done, Aqua.  The strength of will you’ve displayed since returning has been impressive, but it was necessary to determine if it would persist even in the face of emotional duress.”</p><p>“Thanks.  Why?” she demanded.</p><p>“Why, when I knew you were in the Realm of Darkness, did I leave you there?” Yen Sid clarified.  At her single answering nod, he sighed and leaned back in his chair.  “What could I have done?  For the majority of that time Mickey was the sole keyblade wielder in the Realm of Light, and a king beside.  Should I have left this realm defenseless to send him searching in the dark?  And then, when he chose of his own initiative to go seeking the Keyblade of the Dark Realm, should I have told him to linger to seek you when the worlds so desperately needed him?  He saw you, I understand, and was still unable to bring you out at that time.  Should I have asked him to go back and try again at the risk of losing everything he’d gained?”</p><p>Aqua tried to get a word in edgewise, but the words kept falling from Yen Sid’s lips with the inevitable weight of the grains of sand in an hourglass, and she had the feeling this particular train of thought had been running through his mind for a long time.</p><p>“After, when Sora and Riku came into their power, should I have turned them from their conflict with Xemnas to chase after a phantom?”</p><p>“Not a phantom!” Aqua snapped, not willing to let anything linking her to the phantom Aqua she’d slain stand unchallenged.</p><p>“No, not a phantom,” Yen Sid agreed after a moment.  “You do not deserve to be called that.  But the point stands.  I sent Mickey and Riku to seek you in the Realm of Darkness as soon as I possibly could without leaving the worlds undefended.  I acted as was necessary to shepherd the Realm of Light.”</p><p>“Necessary, hmm?  Perhaps.”  Aqua turned and walked to stand beside the window.  She looked away from Yen Sid as she spoke, out to the stars beyond.  “I understand why you would say it was necessary, but that’s not the same as forgiving you for abandoning me there.”</p><p>“I do not ask for your forgiveness.  I do not deserve it.  More important is that you understand the necessity.”</p><p>Aqua turned back from the window.  “One question though.  You said that if Mickey went to look for me in the Realm of Darkness it would leave the worlds undefended.  What about you?  You might not have a keyblade anymore, but you still have formidable magic.  Why couldn’t you protect the worlds while he searched?”</p><p>Yen Sid raised his eyebrows.  “I thought you had realized.  I always think it is more noticeable than it truly is.  Come around to this side of the desk.”</p><p>Curious, Aqua walked around the desk.  The second she passed the halfway point, she sensed a foreign magic jangling against her senses. It was subtly off compared to any other magic she had felt, like comparing a minor to a major chord.  Looking down, Aqua found the source of the strange magic and gasped.</p><p>Yen Sid’s robe stretched to the floor.  Over top of that robe, wrapped exceedingly tightly around his thin legs were seven bands.  Bottommost was a woven band of golden mistletoe like no other she’d ever seen, with unnatural cruel thorns biting through the robe into Yen Sid’s skin.  The five bands above that were metals: bronze, silver, gold, mythril, and orichalcum. </p><p>The seventh band was bone.</p><p>Aqua raised her eyes back to Yen Sid’s sorrowful face.  “I don’t understand,” she said.</p><p>“Xehanort and Eraqus were my juniors, if not direct pupils, back in the days when keyblade masters were plentiful.  Even in your time Xehanort found it necessary to seek out a new body to replace his own aged one.  I knew he would return, so I too found a marginally less distasteful way to extend my life to make sure I was here to oppose him when he did so.”</p><p>Pity filled Aqua’s face.  “Does it hurt?” she asked softly.</p><p>“Always,” Yen Sid replied evenly.  “A reminder of the costs borne by those I send out to face the dark.  You among them.  It was crafted to be so by the fairies Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.  They are as close to good as the fae can be, but even they delighted in the irony of binding me to life with my own regrets and failures.”</p><p>“Can’t the keyblade unlock your bindings?” she asked a little desperately.  Aqua had always hated to see pain she could not remedy, even in the old man that had abandoned her to her fate.</p><p>“They are not locked,” he said tiredly.  “I could leave at any moment, but my life after would be measured in days, perhaps weeks, and you would face Xehanort without my guidance.”  Yen Sid sighed, and removed the hat from his head.  He leaned his bald head back against the oak chair, and the years he’d lived were measured in the depths of his sunken eyes.  </p><p>When he spoke again it was soft, almost a whisper.  “After Xehanort is gone I should like to walk under the stars and along the shore one last time.  I would try to remember what it was like in Scala ad Caelum before the keys went to the graveyard.  Back when I was a young man and the weight of the worlds was shared by an order.  Not thrust upon one poor set of shoulders after another.”</p><p>Yen Sid opened his eyes and they burned with the mad light of a prophet, as if seeing both past and future all at once.  “You will be my successor.  I saw the way you taught Kairi and Axel.  You spoke the truths they needed to hear, painful though the speaking was to both you and them. You alone understand the importance of accepting necessary truths, of trading temporary pain for a long term victory.  Mickey is too kind, and the others too infected with Sora’s boundless compassion.  You will be the master after I am gone and you will do what <em>must</em> be done.”</p><p>Aqua considered.  She took in the old man before her.  Bound in constant pain to a life he hated because his foe still stood.  She saw his Xehanort, who had perverted his heart in ways no other would have dared to imagine.  She saw Merlin, who had fled from hard choices to take refuge with a children’s book.  She saw Eraqus, dead at the hands of his son because he couldn’t imagine that there were more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in his philosophy.</p><p>Aqua looked back even further, to the age that had given them birth.  She did not know the details of Scala ad Caelum’s fall, but she had seen the keys planted in barren soil, more like gravestones than anything that had ever been alive.  And she cast her gaze back further still, to the Age of Fairy Tales which, if the myths were to be believed, had fallen because of people doing what they had to, so that they might claim the light.</p><p>Finally, and hardest of all, Aqua looked to herself.  She saw, as if through a mirror, a phantom of herself in the classroom she had so recently departed.  She saw that phantom strike down Kairi and Axel with her keyblade, and carve their hearts from their chests.  Before her eyes, her phantom shaped the hearts of her friends into the keyblade called Oblivion and pressed them back into their pale still corpses.  When her friends rose, they too were phantoms, birthed from her own hand.</p><p>Aqua took in the present, the past, and herself, and she made her decision.</p><p>“No.  I will be your successor, if it comes to it, but I will not be like you and those who came before.  I will not remake Kairi and Axel in this mold.  I will choose another way.  I will <em>find </em>another way.  We are not tied by chains of necessity to this destiny of terrible choices and burning regrets.”  Gesturing to Yen Sid, Aqua managed to encompass everything that had led to a tired old man choosing perpetual torture in penance for shaping children into weapons against the interminable dark.  “There has to be something better than this.  Mickey would hate this if he knew it all.  Sora would hate every piece of this.  <em>I </em>hate this.”</p><p>Yen Sid averted his eyes, unable to look at her.  “There is no other way.  You will see that in the end.”</p><p>“There is compassion.  Sora’s infectious boundless compassion you called it.  I think I’ll try a little compassion.”  Aqua stepped forward and placed one hand on Yen Sid’s thin and bony shoulder.  There was more magic than muscle there, and now that she had touched him she could feel the fae magic running through his veins in place of blood.</p><p>“I forgive you,” she said with certainty.  “For sending me against Xehanort, and for not rescuing me from the Realm of Darkness.  I made my own choices, and what happened to me was a consequence of those choices.  It is not your burden to bear, and I forgive you for your part in it.”</p><p>Yen Sid’s eyes opened wide and a gasp escaped his mouth.  Aqua could feel him trembling through his robe.</p><p>“Yen Sid?” she asked gently.</p><p>“The pain is lessened, but I feel no less alive.  But that would mean… Could I have been wrong?”  His head sunk into his hands.  “Leave me, Aqua, please.  I need to think.”</p><p>Aqua withdrew her hand and turned to go.  From behind, so softly that she might have imagined it, she heard a whispered “thank you.”  As she shut the door behind her, she saw a river of tears streaming down his weathered cheeks.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A tension lingered in the Mysterious Tower in the days following Aqua’s confrontation with Yen Sid.  The old sorcerer stayed in his room.  He spoke to no one and would not open his door or answer when Aqua called. </p>
<p>Kairi and Axel avoided her.  There was something wounded and wary in their eyes when they looked at her, and Aqua found that caution painful enough to forestall her attempts at reconciliation.  No longer welcome on the roof of the tower, Aqua instead took to walking along the edges of the world.  As she walked she marveled at the little pine trees that managed to grow, despite a lack of land to hold their roots.</p>
<p>A low rumbling shook the earth where she stood.  Aqua peered up into the sky, and watched as a gummi ship slowly descended to dock at the end of the spit of land.  She wasn’t sure who was on it, but any new company was guaranteed to not be angry with her yet, and that had to be an improvement.</p>
<p>She walked up to the dock and watched the gangplank as it unfurled from the ship’s underbelly.  A small figure shot out from the depths of the ship and nearly crashed into her.</p>
<p>“Aqua!”  A high pitched voice called.  “It really is you!  Gosh, Yen Sid said you made it back, but I just couldn’t believe it until I saw for myself.”</p>
<p>It was Mickey himself.  He looked almost exactly the same as when Aqua had last seen him in the Realm of Darkness.  But then, that was what made him so reassuring: come hell or high water, Mickey Mouse would never change.</p>
<p>“It’s good to see you too,” Aqua said with a smile.  She knelt down so she could speak with him eye to eye.  “It took a long journey, and help from an unexpected place, but I’m so glad to finally be back in the light.”</p>
<p>“We’re glad you made it back too, and not just because it means we don’t have to go delving into the dark realm anymore.” </p>
<p>Aqua glanced up and saw Riku following Mickey’s path down the gangplank.  She’d seen him twice before, once on the Destiny Islands when he was very little and briefly in the Realm of Darkness before he, Mickey, and Sora had closed the door to kingdom hearts.  He looked different.  In the past she’d always sensed a ragged edge in him, a desperate need not quite contained.  That sense was gone.  He walked like a man at peace with himself, and Aqua found herself envying that peace.</p>
<p>“Riku, it’s nice to finally meet in the realm of light.  Congratulations, by the way, on being named master.”</p>
<p>For all his newfound equanimity, Riku could still be knocked off guard by unexpected praise.  “Uh, thanks.  I still think Sora deserves to be master instead of me, but that wasn’t my call to make.”</p>
<p>“You were named master because you deserve it,” Mickey said firmly.  “And Sora will earn the title when he deserves it too.”</p>
<p>“Yen Sid told me what happened in the sleeping realms, and I have to agree that you deserve your place, Master Riku.”</p>
<p>Riku’s further protestations of his own unworthiness were stopped by the slam of the tower door opening.  A pink blur practically flew out of the tower and crashed into him.  “Riku, you’re back!” Kairi said, hugging him fiercely.  “How was it?  Are you okay?  I’ve got so much to tell you.  Oh, hi your majesty.  Come on, Axel wants to say hello as well.”</p>
<p>She dragged him toward the open tower door, and Riku only managed to shoot the two of them a rueful, but not particularly sorry grin, before disappearing into the tower.  Judging by his frown, Mickey had picked up on the fact that during the whole greeting, Kairi never once looked at or spoke to Aqua.</p>
<p>“Is something wrong between the two of you?” he asked her once Kairi’s absence had left a silence to fill.</p>
<p>“Kind of.  I wanted to consult with you, keyblade master to keyblade master.”  Aqua’s voice was tight and formal, and she was sure Mickey could read the tension in how she held herself.</p>
<p>“I’m always happy to help,” was all he said.  “Let’s sit. The breeze feels nice after spending so long in the gummi ship and… well… that other place.”</p>
<p>Aqua took a seat on the grass next to Mickey, letting her legs dangle off the edge of the world.  “The Realm of Darkness, you mean?  You can say it.  I won’t pretend I’m okay after my time there, but I’m not so wounded I’ll break just from hearing the name.  And you’re right, the breeze does feel nice.” </p>
<p>They sat in silence for a few moments, Mickey had his eyes closed and his face turned into the wind, apparently content to give her the time she needed to find her words.  Aqua let the breeze play with her hair and noted with amusement that that same breeze set Mickey’s sail-like ears to swaying.</p>
<p>“Yen Sid wants me to train Kairi and Axel as keyblade wielders,” Aqua said at last.  Mickey cracked one eye open and looked at her, gauging her meaning.  “He wants me to train them as <em>traditional</em> keyblade wielders.”</p>
<p>That got the reaction she was looking for.  Mickey opened both eyes and was frowning as he looked at her, but his voice was neutral.  “And have you started training them?”</p>
<p>Aqua winced.  “We’ve had one lesson.  It didn’t go well, but Yen Sid approved of how I taught it.  I wanted to ask you, as a pupil of Yen Sid’s traditional training, what you think of it?”</p>
<p>“Well gosh, I’m not sure I’d really say I was trained traditionally.  Oh, I had some of the basics,” he admitted, waving away Aqua’s next objection, “but the whole traditional style didn’t really work for me.  Remember how I was only an apprentice back when we fought Xehanort the first time?  It’s ‘cause the training wasn’t going so well.  I ended up setting out on my own to see what I could learn.”</p>
<p>“What does your training not going so well mean, exactly?”  Aqua asked, thinking of her own disastrous lesson.</p>
<p>Mickey’s short legs kicked idly over the edge of the world.  “He found my weakness was kindness easily enough, but I wouldn’t let him train it out of me.  No matter how many times he put me in situations where my kindness would backfire and end up hurting me, I just kept doing my best to help.  I didn’t want to become the kind of person who wouldn’t even try.  I think leaving the star shard for me to find was his way of accepting that I should learn on my own for a while.”</p>
<p>“That’s why he asked me to train them instead of you or Riku,” Aqua realized with a sinking feeling.  “It wasn’t that he thought I was the right person to balance the old ways and the new, it was that neither of you would have trained them the way he wants them trained at all.”  She looked over at Mickey.  “If that’s the case, would you be willing to take over their training?  If there’s nothing of value in the traditional methods, then there’s no reason you shouldn’t be their teacher.”</p>
<p>“Hold on now,” Mickey said, throwing his hands up.  “I didn’t say there’s nothing of value in the traditional methods, just that they didn’t completely work for me.  I am glad I went through his training!  It made me better at helping and more aware of myself than I would have been.  It’s just that that wasn’t what Yen Sid was trying to do with it.  It did work for you, right?”</p>
<p>Aqua drew up one leg and rested her head on it.  “I thought it had worked for me, but look what happened.  Even as a master I couldn’t save Terra and Ventus, and it took me a decade to return from the Realm of Darkness.  Maybe I should start my own training from scratch.”</p>
<p>“None of that now!” Mickey said sharply, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.  Aqua felt a burst of light from him, chasing away the shadows she hadn’t realized were lengthening around her.</p>
<p>She’d been spiraling, Aqua realized, and the darkness was always happy to take advantage of moments of weakness.  Her doubts were still there, but unaided by shadow they no longer seemed so insurmountable.</p>
<p>As if sensing her thoughts, Mickey patted her shoulder again.  “I think you are the right person to train Kairi and Axel.  You benefited from the old ways, but you aren’t blind to their flaws.  If there’s anyone who can find a middle ground, it’s you.”</p>
<p>A middle ground.  It was what Yen Sid had asked for in the first place, and what Mickey now was recommending she pursue.  And yet, she hadn’t done that.  She’d charged right ahead with the way she’d been taught, and she’d hurt her friends in the process.</p>
<p>Looking up, she offered Mickey a rare smile.  “I still feel like I have a lot to learn, but they say the best way to learn is to teach, so I’ll keep trying.  If Kairi and Axel will still have me for a teacher anyway.”</p>
<p>“Great!  I’m sure they’ll take you back once you apologize.  That’s what friends do when they fight, after all.”  Offering a hand, Mickey helped pull her to her feet.  “And don’t worry.  Now that you’re safe, Riku and I can start looking for Terra and a way to Castle Oblivion to rescue Ventus.”</p>
<p>“Thanks, I…”  Aqua cut off, too choked up to speak.  Mickey kindly gave her the time she needed.  “I’m not ready to go back out there,” Aqua said at last.  “I want to look for them, but I don’t think I’m strong enough to handle fighting again yet.  I know you need me out there, and I know I should be doing something useful-“</p>
<p>“Nonsense!  You are doing something useful here.  And you recovering is useful.”  He gravely offered her his hand and she took it as they started to walk back toward the tower.  “One of the things that separates us from Xehanort is that we have people on our side – with all their strengths and weaknesses – and he has tools.  Giving you time to recover is a natural part of that, and I wouldn’t choose to give it up even if I could.  The heartless will still be there when you’re ready, and in the meantime you can count on us!”</p>
<p>They paused at the bottom of the steps and Aqua looked down at the diminutive king.  He had been fighting with the weight of the world on his shoulders for longer than any of them, and he was still willing to take on more weight if that was what it took to help his friends.  More, he did it gracefully, with a smile on his face no desire to put guilt on another’s heart.</p>
<p> Aqua knelt and hugged him.  He gave a little “oh” of surprise, but his arms came up and hugged her back.  “Thanks Mickey.  I don’t know what we’d do without you.”</p>
<p>Their hug broke and he rubbed the back of his head bashfully.  “Aw shucks, I’m just doing what I can.  That’s what we all do, really.”</p>
<p>Aqua nodded in agreement and together they walked back into the Mysterious Tower.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Riku and Mickey stayed at the tower for another few days.  Aqua enjoyed their company, and she appreciated the chance to pick their brains about how best to learn to be a keyblade wielder.  Mickey in particular was a font of information and they spoke long into the night on the particulars of their respective training.</p>
<p>At last it was time for them to set out again in search of Terra and a way through the heartless to Castle Oblivion.  Aqua watched them go, grateful beyond words that they were willing to undertake the search, and glad too that she did not yet have to go with them.</p>
<p>With quiet returned to the tower, Aqua turned her attention to Kairi and Axel.  She had spent long hours debating the best approach, both for her apology and for future training, should they accept it.  She’d hit upon the idea of bringing a gift with her, to show that she was serious about her apology.  It took her a few days to come up with a proper gift, and another few to actually acquire it, but Aqua was pleased with what she’d thought up.</p>
<p>Early the next morning Aqua took her gift in hand and went looking for Kairi and Axel.  She had no idea how to find them in the cursed mechanical maze of the tower.  Still, as she let her heart draw her onward, she was utterly unsurprised to find her wandering feet trending upward.</p>
<p>Upon reaching the roof, Aqua stepped through the small window and found her quarry.  Axel and Kairi sat on the roof of the Mysterious Tower, watching the sunrise.  Neither turned to look at Aqua.  She could see the traces of red in Kairi’s eyes, a sure sign she had been crying.  Axel had no such visible sign, but the slight scent of ash was a clue all its own.</p>
<p>“I have something to say.  In exchange for listening to me, I brought you these for us to share.”  Aqua held out three bars of sea-salt ice cream.</p>
<p>“You didn’t have to do that,” Kairi said automatically.</p>
<p>“Yeah, she did,” Axel said seriously.  He took the offered ice-cream and looked at it closely, his eyebrows rising in surprise.  “This is genuine Twilight Town sea-salt ice-cream.  Xehanort’s got the whole town blockaded with heartless.  How’d you get through?”</p>
<p>Aqua pointed down to the tracks below, where a small blue engine with stars and gold trim puffed merrily along on eerie green tracks.  “I took the train.”</p>
<p>“You snuck into Twilight Town on the train and only got three bars?  Are you crazy?”</p>
<p>She rolled her eyes.  “The rest of the crate is in the freezer in the kitchen.”</p>
<p>“Your gift of breakfast ice cream is acceptable,” Axel pronounced, taking a bite of his ice cream.  “I’ll listen to what you want to say.”</p>
<p>Aqua looked over to Kairi as well.  “Is it alright with you?”</p>
<p>“You didn’t have to risk your life for ice cream just to talk with us – well with me anyway,” she added as Axel firmly shook his head.  “What you said in your lesson hurt, but I’m sure that’s what you’re here to talk about.  So I’m willing to hear you out.</p>
<p>“Thanks.” Aqua said, coming to stand beside where the other two were sitting near to the edge.  She did not look down at them, preferring the view before her to the disappointed eyes below.  “I spoke with Yen Sid after our lesson, and it helped me understand some things.  Then I had a conversation with Mickey and that helped me understand a little more.”</p>
<p>“The boss man chewed you out, huh?” Axel drawled.  “He didn’t approve of how you were teaching us young impressionable keyblade wielders?”</p>
<p>“He did approve, actually,” Aqua said evenly.  She forced herself to stop and take a tentative lick of her ice cream.  It was still too strong a flavor for her to bite the way Axel did, but eating it forced her to suppress her immediate emotional reaction.  Maybe Axel ate so much ice cream for the same reason, to keep him cool against his natural tendencies.  “He approved of what I said to both of you and wanted me to continue in that vein.  But I don’t want to be like that, and Mickey helped me see that maybe I don’t have to.”</p>
<p>“I want to be very clear,” Aqua continued.  “I do think there was truth in what I said.  It was an accurate explanation of what it will take to make keyblade wielders of you.”  She hesitated, but forced herself to continue.  It had to be said after all.  “However, I was wrong to say it as cruelly as I did, and I was wrong to come to it so quickly.  There was no reason, Kairi, for me to imply that you don’t deserve your keyblade.  I think you do, and I think we’ll get you to see that too.  Axel, I was wrong to throw in your face your fear for your friends and your guilt over your nobody’s actions.  You know better than I do the challenges you face, and I want to help you face those challenges as I know you can.  Both of you deserved better than my ‘lesson’, and I’m sorry.”</p>
<p>They had both listened to her in silence, and now Axel was watching her with a bemused expression.  “Aren’t you going to talk about your time in the darkness?  You know, something like ‘I haven’t been around people for a long time.  I’m out of practice with what you normal humans call friendship.’”</p>
<p>“No,” said Aqua sharply.  “No, I refuse to use that excuse anymore.  It might explain my behavior, but I am out of the darkness now and my choices are my own.  If I am ever to move past it, then I have to stop using it as a crutch when I make a mistake.  That goes for the training I received as well.  I taught you as I was taught.  However, the old ways cannot stand unaltered.  Yen Sid and I both realize that.  There are parts of them worth preserving, to be sure, but we have to take that foundation and build something new, together.”</p>
<p>Axel and Kairi looked at one another, and a wordless communication passed between them.  “Fair enough,” Axel said at last.  “Come on, sit down.  We need to talk about it anyway.”</p>
<p>Aqua was nervous at the prospect of sitting between them, but Axel gestured to the spot and Aqua knew better than to walk away.  Gingerly, she lowered herself down onto the edge of the roof.</p>
<p>“We’re not going to bite.” Axel said, a trace of humor returned to his tone.  “We just want to go over what you said to each of us.  Kairi, why don’t you go first?”</p>
<p>Turning to the other side, Aqua found the younger girl looking down, kneading her skirt with her hands.  “What you said hurt because it’s the thought that haunts me every night,” Kairi said at last.  “What if I’m not strong enough to help the people I love?  What if all I’m good for is the accident of my birth that makes my heart a little different from everyone else?  To hear that Namine earned the keyblade and not me, well, it seemed to confirm everything that I feared.”</p>
<p>“I know,” Aqua said.  “There isn’t an easy answer.  In the end, you might not be strong enough because we all might not be strong enough.  The dark is terrifying and Xehanort might win.”  Unsurprisingly, this did not cheer Kairi up in the slightest. </p>
<p>Aqua reached out and stilled Kairi’s nervously fidgeting hands.  “However, we have to try.  This doesn’t get better unless we try.  It’s as simple as that.  You have the makings, and by this simple act of taking, a true wielder you will one day be.”</p>
<p>“It’s not about whether or not I’m strong enough,” Kairi said slowly, “it’s that the only way to be happy is if I choose to act.  Giving in to the fear feels easy, but it means that we lose in the long run.”</p>
<p>“Exactly.  Think about it for a while.  You don’t have to come to any answers right now.  We have time to become the people we want to go into battle as.”</p>
<p>It didn’t settle things, of course, deeply held doubts could not be so easily expunged, but it was a beginning.  Kairi looked a little more thoughtful and a little less sad, at least to Aqua’s eyes. </p>
<p>In many ways she was the easier of the two to deal with.  With trepidation Aqua turned to look at Axel.  He was smiling, which really didn’t tell her anything.  She had learned by now that he had a smile for every occasion, happy and sad.  The one he now wore was like a sword in a blacksmith’s forge, sharp edges and burning heat, but not yet settled into its final form.  She could still fix things, somehow, if she could just find the right words.  Or maybe the right way to listen.</p>
<p>“Well?” he asked.  “Aren’t we going to delve into my problems now?”</p>
<p>“You know your problems.  You knew them before I said anything.  You have friends that you care about and you don’t know how to rescue them and it burns you up inside.  You need a fire in your heart to wield a keyblade, but not that type of self-immolation.”</p>
<p>“What do you know about self-immolation?  What do you know of losing and finding and desperately hoping you’ll be able to save people who are already dead?”  Axel leaped to his feet sending fiery chakrams spinning off into the void and back as he ranted. </p>
<p>“Gone.”</p>
<p>Throw.  Catch.</p>
<p>“Told them I’d save them but they’re gone.”</p>
<p>Throw. Catch.</p>
<p>Aqua flinched back from the heat his weapons were spitting out.  “Axel, please.”</p>
<p>“Watched them die, both of them.”</p>
<p>Throw.  Catch.</p>
<p>“And now I have to be okay with that to wield a keyblade?  To have even a chance of getting them back?  Ha!  Fat chance.”  Throw.  Catch.</p>
<p>“You think I don’t know what it’s like?  You think Kairi doesn’t know?!”  Aqua snapped.  “We’re the <em>same,</em> Axel, all three of us.  We’re the ones left behind when the rest of our trios run head first into danger.”</p>
<p> “There is no trio.” </p>
<p>Throw.  Catch. </p>
<p> “I don’t know what you got in your head, but it’s just Roxas–”</p>
<p>“Don’t you dare!”  Aqua was on her feet and shouting now, not willing to let Axel’s stubbornness keep her from driving the point home.  “Don’t you dare disavow her now, not when your heart carries the only trace of her.”</p>
<p>Throw.  Catch.</p>
<p>“What are you talking about?” he said at last.</p>
<p>“When you woke up from your nightmare you said a girl’s name.  I <em>can’t</em> remember what it was, physically can’t, despite hearing it shouted.  Yet you somehow carved it so deeply into your heart that it couldn’t be erased.”</p>
<p>Throw.  Catch.</p>
<p>“I couldn’t save even a memory of her,” Kairi said.  Or was it Kairi?  For a second Aqua thought she saw blond hair and a simple white dress.  “She should have vanished completely.  But the promises we make cannot be so easily forgotten.  Though links in our chain of memories may sink into darkness, the links themselves can live on.  If we hold to them tightly enough.”</p>
<p>Throw.  Catch.</p>
<p>Aqua’s voice was low and urgent now, pleading with Axel to understand.  “We’ll find a way to pull her name out of your heart, and we’ll find a way to bring Roxas out of Sora.  The important thing is that you’ve already kept one of your friends from vanishing when by all rights she should have disappeared without a trace.  You do have the strength to save them!  And if you can find a way to trust in that, and trust that we’ll be beside you the whole way, then you’ll be able to finish the job.  You’ll be able to bring them home.”</p>
<p>Throw. </p>
<p> <em>Flash!</em></p>
<p>There was a burst of flame, and it wasn’t a chakram that came spinning back to Axel’s hand.  It was a keyblade.  Its blade was a scarlet tongue of flame caught mid leap, darkening from a canary yellow near the hilt to a deep crimson red at the swirling tip.  The hilt itself could have been one of his chakrams, ringed as it was with a circle of silver steel spikes.  Axel was quiet as he stared at it in wonderment.</p>
<p>“Well,” he said at last, “I guess you’re not bad at this teaching thing after all.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>One more chapter to go!  It'll be an epilogue/lead in to the next story.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Do you ever forget that you're publishing a story?  Oops! <br/>Also, this chapter mentions Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter, who Aqua met while escaping the Realm of Darkness and with whom she shares a D-Link.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After their conversation on the roof Aqua, Axel, and Kairi found their balance with one another.  That’s not to say everything was resolved.  There were still long nights where Aqua lay awake, frightened that if she slept it would all turn out to have been some delusion of the Realm of Darkness.  Other nights brought the tell-tale heat of Axel’s own troubled dreams.  Kairi’s bad nights were subtler.  It took a careful listening ear for Aqua to catch the faint sound of sobs from the room along the way.</p>
<p>Aqua’s connection to the other two wasn’t the same either.  Like a wild dog brought in from the street, she had savaged people who trusted her.  There was no easy remedy to the distance that action had created.  With Kairi it was easier.  The girl was open and forgiving to a fault and Aqua’s words about being the same in how they were left behind had struck a chord with her.</p>
<p>Axel was harder.  Though the ember of attraction was still there, it went unstoked by either of them.  Instead, they focused on building a friendship that could sustain the reassurance they needed from one another.</p>
<p>Despite the difficulty, they all managed to console one another where they could and build up after the fact where they had to.  There were fights and reconciliations, moments of laughter and sadness, and times where a focus on the needs of the keyblade overwhelmed everything else. </p>
<p>Keyblade training continued, and some of it even involved using keyblades.  Mostly they talked.  They worked on themselves to be the kind of people keyblade wielders should be.  Slowly, they made progress.  Aqua had enjoyed the party they’d thrown when Axel was able to summon his keyblade consistently for a week straight, and she still smiled to remember Kairi’s joy as her keyblade slowly started to feel like it belonged in her hands.</p>
<p>Riku and the king visited more than once.  It was always good to see Mickey again, and Aqua enjoyed the time they spent conversing on the nature of ideal keyblade training.  She got to know Riku as well, and found herself startled by the reality of what Riku had become.  She saw in him what Terra might have been, if he’d been a little stronger, and Xehanort’s influence a little less overpowering.</p>
<p>They never stayed long.  Even with Aqua returned they were still one keyblade wielder short of the seven they needed.  Besides which, Xehanort’s heartless were threatening the worlds and every able key was needed for the fight.  So, off they went again to visit what worlds they could reach, and to push against the blockade of darkness that barred them from the other worlds.  They promised to look for Terra and for a way to make it through the blockade to Castle Oblivion to rescue Ventus, and that was all Aqua could ask.</p>
<p>Sora never visited the tower.  Aqua knew Kairi was sending him letters, and that he even responded occasionally, to reassure her that he hadn’t disappeared again.  But he was off on a quest for the power of waking.  More, Aqua got the sense that he was looking for something else, something he was missing that would give the light the edge it needed, but just what it was Aqua couldn’t guess.</p>
<p>As time passed, Aqua began to feel unsettled.  She was recovered, for the most part.  No, that was a lie.  She still slept with her keyblade more nights than not, and woke screaming when she didn’t.  However, she was reaching the limits of healing in isolation.  She needed to be back in the worlds, fighting the good fight and working through the metaphorical demons that still plagued her.</p>
<p>It came to a head while Aqua was speaking with Yen Sid about the need to go looking for Axel’s missing friend.</p>
<p>“She clearly exists somewhere in Axel’s heart.  We just need a way to peer into it and find out more about her,” Aqua insisted.</p>
<p>“Your desire to help your friend is to your credit.  However, that sounds similar to the experiments that led Ansem the Wise so far astray,” Yen Sid cautioned.  “Who can fathom the depths of a heart?”</p>
<p> “We don’t need to fathom every corner of it,” Aqua objected.  She turned away from Yen Sid’s desk and paced the room, half talking to herself.  “We just need a way to see into him a little bit.  With all his nightmares it’s clear she’s carved pretty firmly into his heart.  Have you ever heard of a magic that can see into a heart?  Or see it’s true desire, or something like that?”</p>
<p>Yen Sid stroked his beard in thought.  “Perhaps.  There are certainly magics to reveal a heart scattered across the worlds.  The most common would be true love’s kiss to reveal a heart’s true nature.”  He kindly ignored the light blush that colored Aqua’s cheeks.  “I don’t believe that would serve in this case.  I will have to think on it.  Aqua?  Aqua!”</p>
<p>On the other side of the desk, Aqua had fallen to her knees, clutching at her chest.  “It’s alright,” she ground out, though the sudden sweat that lined her brow gave away the lie.</p>
<p>“Kairi!  Axel!  To my chamber at once!”  Yen Sid’s voice boomed throughout the tower, and it was scarcely a minute later that Axel and Kairi burst into the room.</p>
<p>Kairi gasped at Aqua’s pained expression, but Axel was already moving.  He knelt beside her and took her in his arms, letting her lean on him.  Kairi was next to him in a second, a warm green light glowing in her hand.</p>
<p>“I don’t understand,” Kairi said.  “It’s like there’s nothing to heal.”</p>
<p>“There isn’t,” Aqua said.  She took a deep breath and shot Axel a grateful look for the support.  “It’s my link with Luna.  She’s drawing as much energy from me as she can.”  Aqua frowned and focused on the connection.  Emotion roiled down it even as power flowed in the other direction.  “She’s afraid, and determined.  I think she’s fighting with everything she’s got.”</p>
<p>“Can you break the link?” Axel asked.  “I don’t like what it’s doing to you.”</p>
<p>“Even if I could, I wouldn’t.”  With his help she attempted to stand and managed to regain her feet.  “She needs what power I can spare, and it’s not really that bad.  It just caught me by surprise.”  In answer to their disbelieving looks she forced a faint smile.  “Really.  I’ll be alright.  Can’t leave a fellow keyblade wielder to fight on her own.”</p>
<p>“Can you send our power to her?” Kairi asked.</p>
<p>Aqua blinked.  “I don’t know.  I’ve never used a link that way before.”</p>
<p>“It was rare back in the days of the order.  Few keyblade wielders had sufficient mastery of magic’s many forms that they could share one type with another.  And yet,” Yen Sid smiled at Aqua, “if there were any in this age capable of it, I believe it would be you.  Sit, and try as best you can.”  With a wave of his hand he summoned up a plush purple armchair which Aqua sank into gratefully.  Two smaller wooden chairs appeared on either side of her seat, and Axel and Kairi took up positions at her sides.</p>
<p>Kairi’s ball of light appeared in her hand.  It was quicker to appear than it once had been, Aqua noted with pride.  The girl had gotten skilled at bringing forth the light that was all her own.  On the other side, Axel brought forth his flame with ease.  He hadn’t made much progress with other elements or aspects of his self, but he knew fire as no other did.</p>
<p>Aqua took their hands, letting light and heat flow into her.  She could use it.  After all the training they’d done together there was no doubt of that.  But she was not the intended final recipient.  Moonbeams have little light, and less heat.  How then could Aqua make the gifted magic into what Luna needed?</p>
<p>How?</p>
<p>By being the best damn magic wielding keyblade master the worlds had ever seen.  Aqua grit her teeth and dove into magic, weaving light and heat and moon and pure power together into a brilliant braid.  It would have been easier if she could have pulled out a little of Luna’s magic to match it against, but she didn’t dare.  Luna was fighting for her life and even a minuscule loss of power might have been catastrophic.</p>
<p>It didn’t matter.  She wouldn’t <em>let </em>it matter.  Aqua took the offered magic and made it her own, and then made it Luna’s.  She sent it flooding down the link with all the compassion and stubborn unyielding will she had to offer.  Aqua could feel Luna’s surprise.</p>
<p>There was a moment’s pause.</p>
<p>And then satisfaction and rising determination rebounded back along the link.  Aqua let her face relax into a smile.  “She got it.  If the magic of three keyblade wielders isn’t enough, then I don’t know what more could be done.  Keep sending me what you can and I’ll keep sending it to her.”</p>
<p>Axel and Kairi nodded, determination writ plain on their faces.  Yen Sid watched with worry in the background.  Aqua couldn’t have said how long they all sat like that.  The longer they sat the firmer Luna’s sense of triumph grew through the link.  Aqua dared hope that they’d helped her friend achieve a great victory.</p>
<p>After an hour Aqua felt the draw on her magic begin to lessen.  A weary triumph echoed back to her with her returning magic.  Aqua disentangled the magic as best she could and sent what she’d borrowed back to Kairi and Axel.  It wasn’t equal to what they’d donated, not by a long shot, but it would hopefully take the edge off the magical exhaustion they’d be feeling tomorrow.</p>
<p>Aqua cracked her eyes open and tried to sit up.  At her sides Axel and Kairi were shaking themselves back to the land of the living as well.  With a groan of effort Aqua rescued her hands from the death grip they’d had on one another.  She rubbed her wrists to try and restore circulation and winced at the red marks where their fingernails had dug into her hands.</p>
<p>“Were you successful?” Yen Sid asked.  Aqua spared a moment of pity for how awful it must have been to watch over them for hours without being able to help.</p>
<p>“I think so,” she said.  Aqua yawned and stretched her shoulders.  Everything felt stiff after sitting that still while expending that much magic.  “Luna seemed happy enough at the end anyway.”</p>
<p>“Glad it wasn’t for nothing, but man, that sure took a lot out of me,” Axel commented wearily as he stood.  His eyes were even more sunken than usual and Aqua could see by the way he held tight to the top of his chair that exhaustion had made him unsteady on his feet.</p>
<p>Kairi hadn’t even bothered to try and stand up yet.  She was still resting in her chair, one arm thrown over the armrest of Aqua’s far softer seat.  Her face was drawn and Aqua thought she could just hear her mumbling words of encouragement to herself.</p>
<p>Aqua tested her legs to see if they were strong enough to support her weight.  She was halfway up when a new emotion roared down the link with such force she was flung back down.</p>
<p>Loss.  Despair.  Regret.</p>
<p>Pure sadness washed over Aqua like a wave, and for a moment she was back in the Realm of Darkness drowning in the abyss from which no light could escape.  She gasped for breath and tried to focus on the world around her.</p>
<p>Aqua gazed around the room, taking in Axel, Kairi, Yen Sid, the desk that hid his cruel prison, and the window beyond that showed the stars.  She felt the softness of her plush chair, the sting in her hands from friends gripping tight, the comforting solidity of the floor under her shoes, and her keyblade across her lap, summoned because she had need of it.  She heard Axel’s gasping breaths, Kairi’s whispered prayers, and her own fearful heartbeat loud in her ears.  Aqua could smell the stale sweat from all the effort they’d put into the magical sending, and the biting crisp scent of pine she now knew came from the fae magic keeping Yen Sid alive.  She tasted sea-salt and sweetness, and it reminded her of where she was.</p>
<p>Slowly, Aqua managed to distinguish herself from the wave of emotion that had threatened to pull her under.  It had not lessened; Luna’s agony had only grown.  Aqua knew she could not help if she could not first master herself.  Though it seemed to take forever, she had grown practiced at dealing with her demons, and only a minute had passed since she’d fallen back to her seat.</p>
<p>Axel caught sight of her expression and was the first to realize something was wrong.  “Aqua?  What’s happening with Luna?” he asked urgently.  His tone caught the attention of Kairi and Yen Sid, and they both paled at the expression on her face.</p>
<p>“She lost,” Aqua said.  “Something, someone, I don’t know.  I hope it’s not Harry, but for her to feel this way it must be someone very important.”  Her gaze sharpened and she struggled back to her feet, shrugging off Axel’s solicitous hands.  “I have to go back to her world.  Whatever’s happened, she’ll need help.”</p>
<p>“You can barely stand,” Yen Sid pointed out with infuriating accuracy.</p>
<p>“My magic’s drained, but it’ll be back by the time I actually arrive.”  Aqua started toward the door, leaning on Master Defender to keep her upright.  The flow of emotion had not lessened.  Aqua was managing to keep it a bay, but clearly whatever had happened to Luna was not getting better.</p>
<p>Axel grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stop.  He could barely stand, and he too was leaning on his keyblade, Flame Liberator, but determination was plain on his face.  “You’re not going into this alone.”</p>
<p>“Your magic’s going to be slower to return than mine.”  Aqua shook off his hand.  “I’m not saying you two can’t come, just that I’m going first.  I’ll send word back once I arrive and you two can join me once you’re recovered.”</p>
<p>“And if the world’s fallen to darkness when you arrive?” Kairi asked from where she sat.</p>
<p>“Who has more experience escaping the dark then me?”  Aqua looked to Yen Sid, who was clearly conflicted on whether or not to let her go.  “There are two keyblade wielders there,” she said directly to him.  “We need one more.  They’ve never left their homeworld, but if we can’t save Ventus, or Terra by the time Xehanort assembles his thirteen darknesses, then they give us an alternative.  This is necessary.”</p>
<p>Yen Sid bowed his head.  “Necessary and kind.  Alright.  You may go first, and they shall follow when you send word that that world has not fallen.  May your heart be your guiding key, Master Aqua.”</p>
<p>Fighting the effects of magical exhaustion, Aqua forced herself to stand straight as she exited Yen Sid’s chamber.  She was dreading the path through the machinery.  Even after the months she’d spent in the tower it still wasn’t easy to traverse, still less when exhaustion was making it difficult to walk.</p>
<p>As the door closed behind her, Aqua turned and gasped.  All the labyrinthine confusion of gears, wires, rope, and chains had been swept away.  In its place was a simple staircase the soothing blue of her own hair.  It sloped gently downward, with openings on the sides for access to the rooms.  Aqua took it as a kind farewell from the Mysterious Tower.  It would still make her walk down those stairs herself, but the path forward was finally clear.</p>
<p>Kind or not, Aqua still didn’t fancy stumbling down dozens of flights of stairs in her current condition.  Fortunately, she had another option, one that was only possible because the obstructing machinery had been cleared from the tower’s center. </p>
<p>Aqua threw her keyblade up into the air.  She wasn’t up to her usual leap atop her glider, so instead it came to rest beside her and she managed to pull herself onto it.  Once aboard the glider rocketed down the stairs at a dizzying pace, stopping only briefly in her chambers to pick up a few items she’d thought to prepare ahead of time.  Finally, she burst through the doors at the tower’s base and out into the open air.</p>
<p>She knew she was flying into danger and death.  Darkness waited in Luna’s world and she would have to fight for her life as she had not while convalescing in the Mysterious Tower.  Still, every broken limb must someday bear weight once again.  For Aqua, this was her moment to learn if she could bear the weight, if she was still capable of fighting as she knew she must.  Once broken, still bruised, Master Aqua returned to the battlefield.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I hope you enjoyed!  That will do it for this story.  I have started on the next story, for which this and the preceding entry are just prologues.  However, I want to get a bit further before I start posting it.  Keep an eye out for it, and I hope to see you next time!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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